Question

What thermodynamic property do the major regulatory enzymes in glycolysis share? Why is this relevant to understanding the pathways and their regulation?

Answer 1

1. Enzymes suited for control of glycolysis , as they catalyse unidirectional steps driving metabolic flux into one direction.
2. Some rxns in glycolyss are very unfavorable and the cells would never make these ideal, so they are coupled to profoundly thermodynamically ideal rxns.
3. Different responses are somewhat unfavorable so the cell can change the idealness by controlling P/R accordingly by keeping P low or R high this pushes the response forward
4. Energy of hydrolysis may be thermodynamically coupled to ATP formation.