The lipids that are connected to the glucose pathways are cholesterol and triglycerides. Cholesterol is a lipid that contributes to cell membrane flexibility and is a precursor of steroid hormones. The synthesis of cholesterol starts with acetyl CoA and proceeds in only one direction. The process cannot be reversed, and ATP is not produced.
Triglycerides are a form of long-term energy storage in animals. Triglycerides store about twice as much energy as carbohydrates. Triglycerides are made of glycerol and three fatty acids. Animals can make most of the fatty acids they need. Triglycerides can be both made and broken down through parts of the glucose catabolism pathways. Glycerol can be phosphorylated and proceeds through glycolysis. Fatty acids are broken into two-carbon units that enter the citric acid cycle.
Evolution In Action
Pathways of Photosynthesis and Cellular Metabolism
Photosynthesis and cellular metabolism consist of several very complex pathways. It is generally thought that the first cells arose in an aqueous environment—a “soup” of nutrients. If these cells reproduced successfully and their numbers climbed steadily, it follows that the cells would begin to deplete the nutrients from the medium in which they lived, as they shifted the nutrients into their own cells. This hypothetical situation would have resulted in natural selection favoring those organisms that could exist by using the nutrients that remained in their environment and by manipulating these nutrients into materials that they could use to survive. Additionally, selection would favor those organisms that could extract maximal value from the available nutrients.
An early form of photosynthesis developed that harnessed the sun’s energy using compounds other than water as a source of hydrogen atoms, but this pathway did not produce free oxygen. It is thought that glycolysis developed prior to this time and could take advantage of simple sugars being produced, but these reactions were not able to fully extract the energy stored in the carbohydrates. A later form of photosynthesis used water as a source of hydrogen ions and generated free oxygen. Over time, the atmosphere became oxygenated. Living things adapted to exploit this new atmosphere and allowed respiration as we know it to evolve. When the full process of photosynthesis as we know it developed and the atmosphere became oxygenated, cells were finally able to use the oxygen expelled by photosynthesis to extract more energy from the sugar molecules using the citric acid cycle.
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