Glycolysis highlights

•Glycolysis is an universal part of metabolism. Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells in both the presence or absence of oxygen (aerobic and anaerobic, respectively).Glycolysis is the network of biochemical reactions by which the sugar molecule glucose is broken down and energy carrying molecules produced. One might represent this understanding simply as

Glucose -> ATP

Resources to review glycolysis.

•An additional product of anaerobic glycolysis is the production of ethanol. Ethanol is a major industrial product primarily obtained from yeast. Fermentation is another method of alcohol production via yeast. Here we might represent the role of glycolysis in producting ethanol as

Glucose->ethanol.

•Glycerol is produced from one of the glycolysis intermediates (glyceraldegyde 3-phosphate). This is considered a branch of the glycolytic pathway. Studies have shown that the rate of production of glycerol has an impact on the development and maintenance of glycolytic oscillations which occur under anaerobic conditions.

•Glycogen production and degradation are also directly connected to the glycolysis pathway, as is the break down of amino acids. These latter pathways drive the glycolytic pathway forward for the production of ATP or other metabolites under low intracellular glucose conditions such as fasting.

Resources to review glycolysis:

Online Biology Book: This is an online biology book. It gives a simple overview of Cell Metabolism beginning at glycolysis and then three possible directions for pyruvate at the end of glycolysis (cellular respiration occurs in aerobic conditions, fermentation to either lactic acid or ethanol is anaerobic) It also gives a good explanation of the path of aerobic metabolism and the 2 additional cycles utilized (Citric Acid Cycle and the Electron Transport System)

Kimball's Biology Pages
Brief overview of the details of glycolysis and subsequent processing of pyruvic acid.

Yeast Metabolism
Review of yeast carbohydrate metabolism. Materials were developed by Horst Feldmann as part of a short course on yeast biology.