Glucose-1-phosphate
Encyclopedia
Glucose 1-phosphate is a glucose
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...

 molecule with a phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

 group on the 1'-carbon.

Catabolic

In glycogenolysis
Glycogenolysis
Glycogenolysis is the conversion of glycogen polymers to glucose monomers. Glycogen is catabolized by removal of a glucose monomer through cleavage with inorganic phosphate to produce glucose-1-phosphate...

, it is the direct product of the reaction in which glycogen phosphorylase
Glycogen phosphorylase
Glycogen phosphorylase is one of the phosphorylase enzymes . Glycogen phosphorylase catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the degradation of glycogen in animals by releasing glucose-1-phosphate from the terminal alpha-1,4-glycosidic bond...

 cleaves off a molecule
Molecule
A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...

 of glucose
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...

 from a greater glycogen
Glycogen
Glycogen is a molecule that serves as the secondary long-term energy storage in animal and fungal cells, with the primary energy stores being held in adipose tissue...

 structure.

To be utilized in cellular catabolism it must first be converted to glucose 6-phosphate by the enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 phosphoglucomutase
Phosphoglucomutase
Phosphoglucomutase is an enzyme that transfers a phosphate group on an α-D-glucose monomer from the 1' to the 6' position in the forward direction or the 6' to the 1' position in the reverse direction....

. One reason that cells form glucose 1-phosphate instead of glucose during glycogen breakdown is that the very polar phosphorylated glucose cannot leave the cell membrane and so is marked for intracellular catabolism.

Anabolic

In glycogenesis
Glycogenesis
Glycogenesis is the process of glycogen synthesis, in which glucose molecules are added to chains of glycogen for storage. This process is activated during rest periods following the Cori cycle, in the liver, and also activated by insulin in response to high glucose levels, for example after a...

, free glucose 1-phosphate can also react with UTP
UTP
UTP may refer to:* Unlisted Trading Privileges - in finance - the statutory basis for, and by extension, an electronic network which carries quotes and trades for the New York-based NASDAQ stock_exchange....

 to form UDP-glucose, by using the enzyme UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase
UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase
UTP—glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase also known as glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase is an enzyme associated with glycogenesis. It synthesizes UDP-glucose from glucose-1-phosphate and UTP; i.e.,...

. It can then return to the greater glycogen structure via glycogen synthase
Glycogen synthase
Glycogen synthase is an enzyme involved in converting glucose to glycogen. It takes short polymers of glucose and converts them into long polymers....

.
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