As each and every cell in the body needs energy, glycolysis happens in all the cells. Owing to its inevitability, glycolysis can occur both in the presence and in the absence of oxygen. Accordingly, the two types are known as aerobic glycolysis and anaerobic glycolysis respectively
Glycolysis is known as the first step of cellular respiration, which helps in the utilization of glucose.
It is main component of central metabolism, the other two being the pentose phosphate pathway and the TCA cycle. As such, its functioning is essential under all conditions of growth because it produces six ( β-D-glucose-6-phosphate, D-fructose-6-phosphate, dihydroxyacetone phosphate, 3-phospho-D-glycerate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and pyruvate as processed through the Krebs Cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle ).
This gives 13 precursor metabolites that are the starting materials for the biosynthesis of building blocks for macromolecules and other needed small molecules.
Glycolysis can be found, if at least in part, in all organisms and it helps fulfill two essential functions:
- It oxidizes hexoses to generate ATP, reductants, and pyruvate, and
- being an amphibolic pathway (the pathway that involves both catabolism and anabolism), it can reversibly produce hexoses from various low-molecular-weight molecules.
In summary, Glycolysisis breaks down glucose into two pyruvic acids, this process occurs in the cytoplasm of the cell and produces 2 ATP and 2 NADH.
The location in a cell in which Glycolysis occurs is
- Dependent on species – living organisms (plant, animal, virus)
- The cellular location
- And the availability of enzymes
Where does glycolysis take place?
On like answers given in some biology textbooks – Glycolysis occurs in different based on the species (the type of cell), in plants – respiration takes place inside tiny cellular organelles called mitochondria while glycolysis is the only part that takes place outside, in the cell’s cytoplasm. Other locations in which glycolysis occur are:-
- cytoplasm
- cytosol
- Plastids
- glycosome
as for viruses, glycolysis doesn’t occur at all. This is because the viruses hijack the metabolic process of the host cell.