Glycolysis is anaerobic or aerobic?

[hunterpostbacst]

Cliff says it's included in aerobic, but kaplan says it's included in anaerobic.
What's right? Even wikipedia says it's both aerobic and anaerobic. ;(

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[joonkimdds]

It's anaerobic. It doesn't require Oxygen so it cannot be aerobic.


After glucose become pyruvate, that's when you have the choice of entering aerobic.

 

[brightsmiles9]

I thought it was both because glycolysis in the anaerobic state breaks down into pyruvate and then it also breaks down in the aerobic state as well.

 

[nze82]

Glycolysis is really the conversion of Glucose to Pyruvate, which takes place in the cytosol. Now, this portion doesn't require any oxygen whatsoever. Think about it, when oxygen is scarce, this pathways is still running: Glucose is being converted to pyruvate, which then undergoes either alcoholic fermentation or lactic fermentation.
However, some books may refer to the entire catabolism of glucose (including the TCA cycle and the electron transport chain) as glycolysis. Under such circumstances, then you can look at glycolysis as an aerobic process.
But I think it's more accurate to look at glycolysis as only conversion of glucose to pyruvate, which is indeed anaerobic.

 

[hunterpostbacst]

Thanks! Both glycolysis and fermentation are anaerobic! OK!
Yeah, some books refer cell respiration as glycolysis only or as whole glycolysis, krebs cycle, and ETC..confusing...