Question

Though cyanide acts on the ETC, cyanide poisoning also has important consequences for glycolysis since both the ETC and glycolysis are involved in the production of energy. Thinking back to the regulation of enzymes in glycolysis, how would you expect the activity of key enzymes in glycolysis such as PFK-1 to change in response to cyanide poisoning?

Answer 1

Reduced ATP levels would activate the PFK-1

Step-by-step explanation:

Phosphofructokinase-1 is a regulatory enzyme and serves as one of the major points of regulation in glycolysis. The enzyme phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK-1) catalyzes the phosphorylation of fructose 6-phosphate to obtain fructose 1, 6-bisphosphate. Here, ATP serves as a phosphate group donor. The activity of PFK-1 is increased whenever the cell’s ATP levels are reduced.

On the other hand, increased cellular levels of ADP and AMP activates the enzyme. The increased ATP levels of cells inhibit the enzyme. Cyanide inhibits the ETC and thereby, reduces the ATP levels of the cell. Therefore, reduced cellular ATP levels caused by cyanide poisoning would activate the PFK-1.