Question

How is glucose changed during glycolysis?

Answer 1

Hint: Glycolysis is the process by which glucose is converted to pyruvate. Glycolysis is a catabolic process of metabolism.

Complete answer:
The body has to maintain blood glucose concentrations at all times. This process makes use of ATP and water. Glucose is an important and common fuel for almost all organisms. In the process of glycolysis one molecule of glucose is converted into two molecules of pyruvate. Along with it two hydrogen ions and two molecules of water are released. Glucose is a 6 carbon sugar that is reduced to pyruvate which is 3 carbon molecules. By this process, free energy is released which is used to form ATP and NADH. Glycolysis occurs in the cytosol of cells. Glycolysis is a catabolic process of metabolism.

In glycolysis there is a step by step conversion of glucose. First glucose gets irreversibly phosphorylated using hexokinase and one ATP to form glucose-6-phosphate. Then glucose-6-phosphate is isomerized with phosphoglucose isomerase to form fructose-6-phosphate. Fructose-6-phosphate is phosphorylated at the 1-position using the phosphofructokinase complex and one ATP so that dihydroxyacetone and L-glyceraldehyde are obtained. And fructose-1,6-bisphosphate is produced. Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate is cleaved using aldolase to form the two 3-carbon compounds: dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP). 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate is produced by using 2 GAP equivalents, 2 NAD+, two free phosphoryl groups and the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) enzyme. 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate
then utilizes phosphoglycerate kinase to give you 3-phosphoglycerate. 3-phosphoglycerate is converted to 2-phosphoglycerate using an enzyme called phosphoglycerate mutase (PGM). 2-phosphoglycerate now becomes an enol using enolase to form phosphoenolpyruvate. This now converts to pyruvate using pyruvate kinase.

Note: Overall in the process of glycolysis one molecule of glucose is converted to two molecules of pyruvate.The process of glycolysis uses 2 ATP molecules and produces 4 ATP molecules, and uses 2 NAD+ molecules and produces 2 NADH molecules.