Question

A compound is an inhibitor of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. If this compound were added to liver cells in which D-glucose was the only substrate, what effect would it have on the concentrations of the various glycolytic intermediates?

Answer 1

Answer:

• Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme catalyzes the conversion of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate in the sixth step of the glycolysis process.
• An inhibition of this enzyme would therefore lead to accumulation of the intermediate metabolites of the glycolytic pathway starting from glucose-6-phosphate to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. Since, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate cannot be converted to 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate, therefore there would be a reduction in the levels of 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate. It will further lead to the depletion of the levels of pyruvate and lactate.