Question

Where is most of the potential energy from glucose at the end of glycolysis?

a. transferred to ADP, forming ATP
b. transferred directly to ATP
c. retained in the two pyruvates
d. stored in the NADH produced
e. used to phosphorylate fructose to form fructose 6-phosphate

Answer 1

Most of the potential energy from glucose after glycolysis is retained in the resulting two pyruvate molecules, while a portion is used to produce ATP and NADH through substrate-level phosphorylation.

Step-by-step explanation:

At the end of glycolysis, most of the potential energy from glucose is retained in the two pyruvates. During the process of glycolysis, a glucose molecule is broken down into two pyruvate molecules. Each pyruvate retains a significant portion of the energy that was originally in the glucose molecule, while a small amount of energy is used to produce ATP directly by substrate-level phosphorylation and to reduce NAD+ to form NADH. In this process, a net gain of two ATP molecules is produced, but more energy is still contained within the two pyruvate molecules that are formed.