Glycolysis essays

Glycolysis essays 1. Discuss the complete oxidation of glucose by the processes of glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. Be sure to include in which part of the cell each process occurs. Do not dwell on details and numerical balance of the reactions, but focus on the major reactants, products and destinations of these products. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells need energy to make proteins or DNA, to move, and to grow. The energy used by the cells most commonly is supplied from ATP, adenosine triphosphate. Sets of basic, biochemical reactions are used to make this ATP, using energy captured from oxidation and glucose. The metabolic pathways that oxidize glucose to make ATP in the cell are glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and electron transport chain. Glycolysis, a ten-step, anaerobic, enzyme catalyzed reaction, is the first process involved in capturing the energy of glucose to make ATP. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells undergo glycolysis in the cytosol of the cell. The first 5 steps of glycolysis use ATP to phosphorylate glucose, a reaction that invests ATP to drive the reaction forward. The first step has glucose enter the cell, using the enzyme hexokinase to catalyze the reaction, causing an investment of a molecule of ATP. As a result, glucose 6-phosphate is synthesized. Step two uses and isomerase known as phosphoglucoisamerase, to arrange glucose 6-phosphate into its isomer fructose 6-phosphate. One more molecule of ATP is then invested, during step three, due the enzyme phosphofructokinase. This produces fructose 1, 6-biphosphate, a 6-carbon sugar. During step four, the enzyme aldolase cleaves the 6-carbon sugar into two 3-carbon sugars, known as dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde phosphate. St ep five uses an isomerase to catalyze the reversible conversion between the two 3-carbon sugars. Due to this, equilibrium is never achieved. Of these two isomers, only glyceraldehyde phosphate move ...