Posted by My series on using computational tools to study molecular evolution [Publishing Original Research on Blogs] has focused on the evolution of the aldolase gene family in Drosophila. When I described the Backstory, I left out a lot of details regarding the biochemistry of glycolysis. Well, Larry Moran happens to be a biochemist — he’s even written a book about biochemistyr — and he’s posted a more comprehensive look at aldolase. I focused my introduction on animals, which use aldolase in glycolysis — the breakdown of glucose into smaller molecules. Larry points out that the opposite pathway (gluconeogenesis) uses a different version of aldolase in the production of glucose.
evolgen
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Actually, aldolase catalyses in both directions, which is why even humans can generate glucose from pyruvate (think Cori cycle). Many enzymes can catalyse in both directions because they often stabilise the transition state intermediate. It’s the same enzyme for gluconeogenesis and glycolysis pathways in humans.
October 7, 2007