a. When you are vigorously exercising, and your muscle cells are being powered b
ID: 91300 • Letter: A
Question
a. When you are vigorously exercising, and your muscle cells are being powered by glucose supplied from the degradation of their glycogen stores, you will produce 3 ATP/glucose molecule during glycolysis instead of the normal yield of 2 ATP/glucose during glycolysis. Why is this? b. Explain why the higher yield is only a short-term gain and why, in the long-term, you aren't really getting an extra ATP/glucose. c. About 10% of the glucose residues released from glycogen breakdown yield only 2 ATP/glucose molecule instead of the 3 ATP listed in part a. Explain why approximately one of every 10 glucose units released from glycogen only gives us 2 ATP/glucose. Think about the structure of glycogen.Explanation / Answer
3.a When we are vigourously exercising, the demand for ATP increase which cannot be met by glucose metabolism alone and therefore the body starts metabolizing glycogen stored in the liver to produce 3 ATP's instead of the net 2 ATP's produced by glycolysis.
this process has main steps like, conversion of glycogen to glucose- 1- phosphate which converts to glucose - 6- phosphate which in turn yields pyruvate and lactate.
3.b. In the long term, we are not really gaining an extra glucose because while dping heavy work and metabolizing glyogen, lactate is also produced which goes into the liver to be made into glucose again which consumes around 3 ATP's. This lactate is not formed while doing light work and metabolizing glycogen.
3.c. The glycogen molecule has 2 chains running together one is a straight chain and the other one is the branched chain. In the straight chain , the glucose molecules are joined together by alpha 1-4 linkages and the branched chains have an alpha 1-6 linkages there is a branched chain structure after every 10 residues or so which leads to the formation of some free glucose which undergo glycolysis to produce glucose 1,6 phosphate which consumes 1 ATP and so the net production of 3 ATP's decreases to 2 ATP's.
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