Carbohydrates

Explore the curriculum

• Carbohydrates: structure and properties

  From monosaccharides to heterosides, understand carbohydrate structures, isomerism, chemical properties, and major biological families.

• Glycolysis: from glucose to pyruvate

  A ten-step cytosolic pathway that converts glucose into pyruvate, produces ATP and NADH,H+, and adapts to the cell’s energy state.

• Fructose and galactose: entry routes, crossroads, and enzyme defects

  Two hexoses enter energy metabolism through distinct steps, with clinically important points of failure.

• Krebs cycle: oxidising acetyl-CoA and regenerating oxaloacetate

  The citric acid cycle links aerobic acetyl-CoA oxidation to production of reduced coenzymes and biosynthetic intermediates.

• Pentose phosphate pathway

  A cytosolic diversion of glucose-6-phosphate that supplies NADPH,H+ and phosphate pentoses without producing ATP.

• Gluconeogenesis: making glucose when it is needed

  Understand precursors, glycolytic bypasses, energetic cost, inter-organ cycles, and regulation of gluconeogenesis.

• Glycogen metabolism: storing, mobilising, and regulating glucose

  Understand glycogen structure, synthesis, breakdown, reciprocal regulation, and glycogen storage diseases.