Reply To: Chemistry/Biology/Physics/Biochemistry/Math

Which is the last enzyme involved in glycogenolysis?

I’m assuming you mean “glycolysis” 🙂

The last enzyme involved in glycolysis is pyruvate kinase, which converts enolate into pyruvate. Pyruvate can then go through different routs:

Aerobic Respiration: pyruvate moves from the cytosol to the matrix of the mitochondria to go through the Krebs Cycle (Citric Acid Cycle).

Anaerobic Respiration: if there is no oxygen, pyruvate can go through either lactic acid synthesis (whereby pyruvate is turned into lactic acid) or ethanol synthesis (some microorganisms, such as yeast, utilize. Pyruvate is decarboxylated and reduced to ethanol, releasing CO2). The main idea of anaerobic respiration is to oxidize NADH to NAD+, which is necessary for a middle step of glycolysis (the conversion of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to glycerate-1,3-bisphosphate, which reduces NAD+ to NADH).