Question

Explain why the phosphorolytic cleavage of glycogen is more energetically advantageous than its hydrolytic cleavage.

Answer 1

See explanation

Step-by-step explanation:

Basically, phosphorolysis involves the cleavage of a bond by adding phosphoric acid across the bond, while hydrolysis involves the cleavage of a bond by adding water across the bond.

The phosphorolytic cleavage of glycogen is energetically advantageous because the released sugar is already phosphorylated. In contrast, a hydrolytic cleavage would yield glucose, which would then have to be phosphorylated at the expense of the hydrolysis of a molecule of ATP to enter the glycolytic pathway(Biochemistry, 5th ed, Jeremy M Berg et al, 2002).