Glycolysis

Introduction

Glycolysis is a central pathway for the production of energy. In eukaryotic systems, it breaks down a supply of glucose into substrates for the production of fat, amino acids and ATP. The pathway of glycolysis is important in a number of contexts. It is required for the production of cellular energy, involved in the generation of fat and regulation of glucose levels. Yeast glycolysis is used in the industrial production of ethanol and the art of wine making.

The pages here are designed to provide information needed to model the glycolytic pathway. To model any process requires a good understanding of the components of the system, the interactions between those components in the form of reactions, and the kinetics (temporal behavior) of the components/reactions. To understand and interpret the results of the model requires an understanding of the experimental system. A good understanding of the system's behavior allows us to compare the simulation results to "real world" data.

Glycolysis has been well characterized and modeled in a number of organisms (see below). The models have played an important role in understanding the regulation of the glycolytic pathways and in the development of methods for studying control of pathways (metabolic control analysis).

Background

The pathway discussed in these pages is common to many organisms. Although the metabolites (sugar/carbon molecules) may be identical in most species, the enzymes can differ. Web- accessible databases such as KEGG and BioCyc contain information on the glycolytic pathway for multiple organisms. The materials presented here identify all known metabolites and enzymes of the mammalian/yeast glycolytic pathway. When the entire pathway of glycolysis is not the focus of study or research, the description of glycolysis may be simplified (See highlights).

One approach to simplifying a model is the creation of a "minimal model". The minimal model uses the least number components to recreate a behavior. These are sometimes called core models. Examples of core glycolysis models can be found online.

Glycolytic Pathway: Image of pathway and table of reactions.

Components: Metabolites, Enzymes

Relationships: Rate equations

Exercises

Online model database hosted Brett Olivier and Jacky Snoep, Stellenbosch University and Vrije Universiteit - Amsterdam.

• This site contains Java applets of numerous metabolic models. Variable values can be changed in order to "evaluate" or examine the results of the system with different initial conditions.

1. Teusink et al. 2000
2. Galazzo et al. 1990
3. Hynne et al.2001

5. Heinrich et al. 1977
6. Rapoport et al. 1976
7. Joshi & Palsson 1990
8. Holzhutter et al 1985
9. Mulquiney &Kuchel 1999