Question

You are carrying out an experiment in the lab to study the glycolysis pathway. To do this, a liver extract (which is capable of carrying out all of the normal metabolic reactions) is incubated with 14C-labeled glucose at carbon 1. Based on your knowledge of glycolysis, where does the 14C-label end up in pyruvate?

Answer 1

When C1 is labeled in glucose, it ends up in the methyl group of pyruvate.

Aldolase cleaves a hexose into two trioses.

[See the image attached].

Asterisk indicates the label.

When C1 is labeled in glucose, it ends up in the carboxyl group of pyruvate.