Steps of Glycolysis

Do you have difficulty in remembering the steps of Glycolysis? I have made it easy for you. First of all look at the picture:

Now let's discuss it in detail..

What is Glycolysis?

Energy is necessary for biological creatures to live. One of the processes that cells utilise to convert carbohydrates like glucose into metabolic energy in the form of ATP is glycolysis.

Through a sequence of ten enzymatic processes, glycolysis transforms glucose into pyruvate inside the cell's cytoplasm. Along with ATP, this process also results in the production of NADH, which may be utilized later to make even more ATP for the cell.

Steps of Glycolysis

1. First, a kinase reaction adds a phosphate onto glucose to form Glucose-6-phosphate.One of the two phases that consumes energy is this irreversible reaction.
2. After that, an Isomerase process rearranges covalent bonds to change glucose-6-phosphate into fructose-6-phosphate.
3. In order to create Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, another kinase removes a phosphate group from ATP and transfers it to Fructose-6-phosphate.
    This is the 2nd energy consumption step, and an irreversible reaction.
4. In the 4th step of glycolysis, a Lyase reaction splits the 6-carbon Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate into two 3-carbon sugars, Dihydroxyacetone phosphate, and Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate.
5. The Dihydroxyacetone phosphate is rearranged by another Isomerase to form a 2nd Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. At this point in glycolysis, glucose has been metabolized into two Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphates, and 2 ATPs have been consumed.
6. In step 6, both glyceraldehyde-3-phosphates are oxidized to 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate by a Dehydrogenase. This step produces 1 NADH for each oxidized glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate for a total of 2 NADHs. Later, the cell uses these NADHs to make additional ATP.
7. In this step, a kinase transfers a phosphate from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate to ADP to form ATP and 3-phosphoglycerate. Despite the formation of ATP, this process is reversible.
8. The next step involves a Mutase reaction, that moves the phosphate on the 3rd carbon of 3-phosphoglycerate, to the 2nd carbon position to form 2-phosphoglycerate.
9. In this step, a Lyase reaction removes water from 2-phosphoglycerate to form Phosphoenolpyruvate.
10. The phosphate group from phosphoenolpyruvate is taken out by a kinase enzyme, which then donates it to ADP to create ATP and Pyruvate in the process of glycolysis.

Like reactions 1 and 3, this step is irreversible. At this point, 2 pyruvate molecules, 4 ATPs and 2 NADHs are formed for each glucose that was broken down in glycolysis.

Aerobic respiration might make use of the pyruvates and NADHs to increase cellular energy production. These ATPs are significant energy molecules necessary for several metabolic pathways, and eventually for life itself.

The pool of ATP used in these processes, which are necessary for living organisms to survive, is significantly augmented by glycolysis.