Question

What is the fate of glucose 6-phosphate that enters the pentose phosphate pathway in the flight muscles of hummingbirds? Glucose 6-phosphate is converted to carbon dioxide and ribose 5-phosphate. Glucose 6-phosphate is converted to ribose 5-phosphate. Glucose 6-phosphate is converted to carbon dioxide and pyruvate. Glucose 6-phosphate is converted to carbon dioxide.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is that glucose-6-phosphate gets transformed to ribose-5-phosphate and carbon dioxide.

Explanation:

After entering into the pentose phosphate pathway, the glucose-6-phosphate gets transformed into ribose-5-phosphate, that is, the five-carbon sugar molecule and carbon dioxide. After getting into the pathway, first of all, the glucose-6-phosphate by the activity of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase gets transformed into 6-phosphogluconolactone.  

In the process of the conversion of the glucose-6-phosphate to the lactone compound, the formation of NADPH also takes place. From the produced 6-phosphogluconolactone, the formation of 6-phosphogluconate takes place by the activity of the enzyme lactonase. This further gets decarboxylated and hydrolyzed by the activity of the enzyme 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase into carbon dioxide and ribose-5-phosphate. This conversion of glucose-6-phosphate takes place within the hummingbird's flight muscles to generate NADPH and to defend against oxidative stress.