Glycolysis Original Scenario-Based Practice

Questions

1. 1.

   A bioengineering team designs an autonomous synthetic proto-cell to harvest energy in an anaerobic subsurface cavern exclusively through the canonical ten-step glycolytic pathway. During a functional assay, a targeted metabolic blocker selectively and completely inhibits the enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). Which of the following describes the direct biochemical consequence of this inhibition on the cell's glycolytic processing of glucose?

   • A) The cell avoids consuming initial energy reserves because glucose cannot be phosphorylated into glucose-6-phosphate.
   • B) Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate fails to be cleaved into three-carbon sugars, leading to an upstream accumulation of hexose phosphates.
   • C) Substrate-level phosphorylation proceeds normally, allowing the cell to maintain its gross yield of four ATP molecules per glucose.
   • D) The reduction of $\text{NAD}^+$ to $\text{NADH}$ is halted, and no subsequent ATP is generated during the energy payoff phase.

Answers and step-by-step solutions appear after you finish the test.