Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose into pyruvate and, in most organisms, occurs in the liquid part of cells. The free energy released in this process is used to form the high-energy molecules adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). Glycolysis is a sequence of ten reactions catalyzed by enzymes.
Hydrolysis is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile.
Polysaccharides, or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long-chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with water (hydrolysis) using amylase enzymes as catalyst, which produces constituent sugars. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch, glycogen and galactogen and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin.
Glycogen is a multibranched polysaccharide of glucose that serves as a form of energy storage in animals, fungi, and bacteria. It is the main storage form of glucose in the human body.
Glucagon is a peptide hormone, produced by alpha cells of the pancreas. It raises the concentration of glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream and is considered to be the main catabolic hormone of the body. It is also used as a medication to treat a number of health conditions. Its effect is opposite to that of insulin, which lowers extracellular glucose. It is produced from proglucagon, encoded by the GCG gene.
Glycogenolysis is the breakdown of glycogen (n) to glucose-1-phosphate and glycogen (n-1). Glycogen branches are catabolized by the sequential removal of glucose monomers via phosphorolysis, by the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase.
Carbohydrate metabolism is the whole of the biochemical processes responsible for the metabolic formation, breakdown, and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms.
Glucose 6-phosphate is a glucose sugar phosphorylated at the hydroxy group on carbon 6. This dianion is very common in cells as the majority of glucose entering a cell will become phosphorylated in this way.
In biochemistry, phosphorylases are enzymes that catalyze the addition of a phosphate group from an inorganic phosphate (phosphate+hydrogen) to an acceptor.
Glycogenesis is the process of glycogen synthesis, in which glucose molecules are added to chains of glycogen for storage. This process is activated during rest periods following the Cori cycle, in the liver, and also activated by insulin in response to high glucose levels.
Glycogen phosphorylase is one of the phosphorylase enzymes. Glycogen phosphorylase catalyzes the rate-limiting step in glycogenolysis in animals by releasing glucose-1-phosphate from the terminal alpha-1,4-glycosidic bond. Glycogen phosphorylase is also studied as a model protein regulated by both reversible phosphorylation and allosteric effects.
Glucose 1-phosphate is a glucose molecule with a phosphate group on the 1'-carbon. It can exist in either the α- or β-anomeric form.
The glycogen debranching enzyme, in humans, is the protein encoded by the gene AGL. This enzyme is essential for the breakdown of glycogen, which serves as a store of glucose in the body. It has separate glucosyltransferase and glucosidase activities.
Starch phosphorylase is a form of phosphorylase similar to glycogen phosphorylase, except that it acts upon starch instead of glycogen.
The glucose cycle occurs primarily in the liver and is the dynamic balance between glucose and glucose 6-phosphate. This is important for maintaining a constant concentration of glucose in the blood stream.
Myophosphorylase or glycogen phosphorylase, muscle associated (PYGM) is the muscle isoform of the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase and is encoded by the PYGM gene. This enzyme helps break down glycogen into glucose-1-phosphate, so it can be used within the muscle cell. Mutations in this gene are associated with McArdle disease, a glycogen storage disease of muscle.
Sucrose phosphorylase is an important enzyme in the metabolism of sucrose and regulation of other metabolic intermediates. Sucrose phosphorylase is in the class of hexosyltransferases. More specifically it has been placed in the retaining glycoside hydrolases family although it catalyzes a transglycosidation rather than hydrolysis. Sucrose phosphorylase catalyzes the conversion of sucrose to D-fructose and α-D-glucose-1-phosphate. It has been shown in multiple experiments that the enzyme catalyzes this conversion by a double displacement mechanism.
Inborn errors of carbohydrate metabolism are inborn error of metabolism that affect the catabolism and anabolism of carbohydrates.
α-Glucans (alpha-glucans) are polysaccharides of D-glucose monomers linked with glycosidic bonds of the alpha form. α-Glucans use cofactors in a cofactor site in order to activate a glucan phosphorylase enzyme. This enzyme causes a reaction that transfers a glucosyl portion between orthophosphate and α-I,4-glucan. The position of the cofactors to the active sites on the enzyme are critical to the overall reaction rate thus, any alteration to the cofactor site leads to the disruption of the glucan binding site.
Maltodextrin phosphorylase is a phosphorylase enzyme, more specifically one type of glycosyltransferase. Maltodextrin phosphorylase plays a critical role in maltodextrin metabolism in E. coli. This bacterial enzyme, often referred to as MalP, catalyzes the phosphorolysis of an α-1,4-glycosidic bond in maltodextrins, removing the non-reducing glucosyl residues of linear oligosaccharides as glucose-1-phosphate (Glc1P). Phosphorylases are well-regarded for their allosteric effects on metabolism, however MalP exhibits no allosteric properties. It has a higher affinity for linear oligosaccharides than the related glycogen phosphorylase.
