Glycolysis
Glycolysis refers to the metabolic pathway that changes a sugar molecule in the form of glucose into pyruvate (Kalyanaraman & Jacobson, 2010). During this conversion process in the pathway, there is energy released that forms the adenosine triphosphate, ATP molecules. A sugar molecule is acted upon by ten enzymes in a sequential process. The processes are reactions that are basically catalyzed by these enzymes. It is also important to note the various intermediates, which normally provide the entry points to the process of glycolysis.
For instance, a lot of monosaccharides like fructose and galactose may be changed into one intermediate before entering glycolysis. An example of an intermediate is dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which is quite useful in terms of acting as a source of glycerol (Kalyanaraman & Jacobson, 2010). Notably, it is this glycerol that normally combines with the fatty acids to form fat in the body. The processes that make glycolysis are oxygen-independent.
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Krebs cycle
After the process of glycolysis, the metabolized sugar molecule then proceeds into the Krebs cycle. It is important to note that the Krebs cycle is simply a pathway where the metabolism of the sugar molecule involves the use of products from glycolysis. For instance, pyruvic acid from the process of glycolysis is used in the Krebs cycle to generate energy for production of ATP molecules (Bond & Hanover, 2015). The pyruvic acid molecules are changed into cetyl-coenzyme A before entering the Krebs cycle.
The Electron Transport Chain
The electron transport chain is the final pathway where ATP is fully produced. In this pathway, electrons are transferred from their donors to acceptors through simultaneous reactions known as redox (Alberts, Johnson, Lewis, Raff, Roberts & Walter, 2002). Redox involves both oxidation and reduction.
References
Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., & Walter, P. (2002). Electron-transport chains and their proton pumps. Molecular biology of the cell , 4 .
Bond, M. R., & Hanover, J. A. (2015). A little sugar goes a long way: the cell biology of O-GlcNAc. J Cell Biol , 208 (7), 869-880.
Kalyanaraman, C., & Jacobson, M. P. (2010). Studying Enzyme− Substrate Specificity in Silico: A Case Study of the Escherichia coli Glycolysis Pathway. Biochemistry , 49 (19), 4003-4005.
