title: Cross-species studies of glycolytic function.
abstract: Researchers probing the functional properties of glycogen (glucose) fermentation to lactate typically work within either one of two theoretical frameworks or models. The first assumes that the cell is analogous to a watery bag of enzymes, while the second assumes that three dimensional order and structure constrain the behaviors of glycolytic intermediates, of glycolytic enzymes, and of integrated glycolytic pathway functions per se. The former approach has been quite successful in accounting for many glycolytic functions but has not been able to satisfactorily explain a hallmark property of the pathway: namely, that large scale change in pathway flux is reflected in only modest changes in concentrations of pathway intermediates. Despite being composed of very different kinds of enzymes, the pathway is remarkably homeostatic by criterion of stability of concentrations of its intermediates in different metabolic states. The view of the cell as a system in which enzyme, substrate, and modulator mobilities are constrained by intracellular structures, the second framework above, posits intracellular perfusion or convection as a means for increasing rates of enzyme-substrate encounter and as an explanation for how high glycolytic pathway fluxes and homeostasis of pathway intermediates can be sustained simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Hochachka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006019:Glycolysis / Q000502:physiology*; D007773:Lactates / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007773:Lactates