Glycogen metabolism - Glycogen synthesis

in #steem2 years ago

Hello steemians, lets learn about glycogen how it is formed and store and how it is broken down.

Glycogenesis/Glycogen synthesis

Glycogen is synthesized from glucose and it is synthesized in three steps.

Glycogen synthesis occurs in liver and muscle and in the cytoplasm.

  • 1 step - synthesis of UDP glucose

The glucose is coverted to glucose 6 phosphate by hexokinase enzyme and then it converted to glucose 1 phosphate by phosphoglucomutase and then it converted into UDP glucose with the help of UDP and releasing pyrophosphate and here the enzyme responsible for this step is UDP glucose pyrophosphate.

  • step 2 - Glycogen synthase reaction

The UDP glucoses which are formed in first step are now going to attach to a primer called Glycogenin and releases the UDP and gets attched on to it by alpha 1-4 linkage. It is mediated by glycogen synthase enzyme.it is rate limiting enzyme.

  • step 3 - Branching

It is mediated by the enzyme alpha 1,4-1,6 glucan transferase and new alpha 1-6 linkage as a branch is formed.

Thanks for reading,
With regards