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8: Carbohydrate structure and metabolism

  • Page ID
    65935
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    • 8.1: Carbohydrates overview
    • 8.2: Glycolysis
      Glycolysis, which literally means “breakdown of sugar," is a catabolic process in which six-carbon sugars (hexoses) are oxidized and broken down into pyruvate molecules. The corresponding anabolic pathway by which glucose is synthesized is termed gluconeogenesis. Both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis are not major oxidative/reductive processes by themselves, with one step in each one involving loss/gain of electrons, but the product of glycolysis, pyruvate, can be completely oxidized to CO₂.
    • 8.3: Gluconeogenesis
      The anabolic counterpart to glycolysis is gluconeogenesis, which occurs mostly in the cells of the liver and kidney. In seven of the eleven reactions of gluconeogenesis (starting from pyruvate), the same enzymes are used as in glycolysis, but the reaction directions are reversed. Notably, the ΔG values of these reactions in the cell are typically near zero, meaning their direction can be readily controlled by changing substrate and product concentrations.
    • 8.4: Fermentation
      If NADH cannot be metabolized through aerobic respiration, another electron acceptor is used. Most organisms will use some form of fermentation to accomplish the regeneration of NAD+, ensuring the continuation of glycolysis. The regeneration of NAD+ in fermentation is not accompanied by ATP production; therefore, the potential for NADH to produce ATP using an electron transport chain is not utilized.
    • 8.5: Overview of Citric Acid Cycle and Oxidative Phosphorylation
      The citric acid cycle is a series of chemical reactions that removes high-energy electrons and uses them in the electron transport chain to generate ATP. One molecule of ATP (or an equivalent) is produced per each turn of the cycle. The electron transport chain is the portion of aerobic respiration that uses free oxygen as the final electron acceptor for electrons removed from the intermediate compounds in glucose catabolism.
    • 8.6: Citric Acid Cycle and Related Pathways
      The primary catabolic pathway in the body is the citric acid cycle because it is here that oxidation to carbon dioxide occurs for breakdown products of the cell’s major building blocks - sugars, fatty acids, and amino acids. The pathway is cyclic and thus, does not really have a starting or ending point. All of the reactions occur in mitochondria, though one enzyme is embedded in the organelle’s inner membrane. Cells may use a subset of the reactions of the cycle to produce a desired molecule.
    • 8.7: Electron Transport and Oxidative Phosphorylation
      In eukaryotic cells, the vast majority of ATP synthesis occurs in the mitochondria in a process called oxidative phosphorylation. Even plants, which generate ATP by photophosphorylation in chloroplasts, contain mitochondria for the synthesis of ATP through oxidative phosphorylation.
    • 8.8: Carbohydrate Storage and Breakdown
      Carbohydrates are important cellular energy sources. They provide energy quickly through glycolysis and passing of intermediates to pathways, such as the citric acid cycle, amino acid metabolism (indirectly), and the pentose phosphate pathway. It is important, therefore, to understand how these important molecules are made.


    8: Carbohydrate structure and metabolism is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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