glycolysis

Term: glycolysis

Literally meaning: “dissolution of the sugar”

Origin: Anc Greek

γλυκός/glycos(=sweet) as glycose, an older term for glucose

+λύσις/lysis(=dissolution, degradation > verb λύω/leo =break up, solve, loose, degradate)

Coined/History

In 1897 Buchner found by accident that yeast extracts could convert sucrose to ethanol proving that fermentation could occur outside living cells. Seven years later, (1905) William Young discovered that the rate of fermentation decreased without the addition of phosphate (Pi). By 1940 all of the vreactions of the glycolysis pathway were known from the research of Embden, Meyerhof, Parnas and Warburg.

Definition

Glycolysis is the anaerobic catabolism of glucose that takes place in the cytoplasm and converts glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆₎, into pyruvate (CH₃COCOO⁻ + H⁺⁾. producing four ATP molecules and two NADH₂⁺ molecules.