High School

Compare and contrast glycolysis and gluconeogenesis by answering the following question:

a) Which reactions are common between the two pathways? (Use enzyme names since the reactions addressed by only numbers are different for each pathway.)

Answer :

Final answer:

Glycolysis and gluconeogenesis are two key metabolic pathways that focus on the metabolism of glucose. They share some common reactions, but employ different enzymes to suit their specific needs. This allows the cell to govern both pathways independently based on its requirements.

Explanation:

Both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis are key metabolic pathways involved in the metabolism of glucose. Glycolysis is the process of breaking down glucose into pyruvate, yielding energy in the form of ATP and NADH. It uses enzymes like hexokinase and phosphofructokinase-1 to facilitate the conversion of glucose.

On the other hand, gluconeogenesis is almost the reverse process of glycolysis, producing glucose from non-carbohydrate sources such as pyruvate, lactate, glycerol, and certain amino acids. However, there are a few steps in gluconeogenesis that deviate from glycolysis, with different enzymes used in these steps, such as phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), which converts oxaloacetate into PEP, and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase which is utilized instead of phosphofructokinase-1 in glycolysis.

Thus, there are several reactions common in both pathways, but due to the specific requirements, different enzymes like glucose-6-phosphatase and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase are used in gluconeogenesis instead of hexokinase and phosphofructokinase-1 in glycolysis. This allows the cell to independently regulate both pathways based on its needs.

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