Glycogen Biosynthesis

Glycogen biosynthesis
• Can we just reverse glycogen breakdown
reaction?

Glycogen(n) + Pi  Glycogen(n-1) + Glucose 1-phosphate

– Phosphorolysis of the glycosidic bond; energy is made available,

some is used to form the glucose-phosphate bond but the rest is
lost as heat
– Simple reversal of this reaction would therefore require the
addition of heat?
 Glycogen biosynthesis
• The “extra” energy required to add glucose to the
glycogen stores is supplied by another high-energy
compound, uridine triphosphate (UTP)

UDP-glucose
pyrophosphorylase
 Glycogen biosynthesis
• Glycogen synthase
– This process is repeated until
the available glucose has been
stored as glycogen

– glycogen synthase can only

make a-1,4-bonds so another
enzyme is needed to form the
branch points seen in glycogen
 Glycogen biosynthesis
• Branching enzyme

– The enzyme transfers a “block” of glucose residues

(~7) from the end of a growing chain
– The enzyme breaks the existing a-1,4 bond then
reattaches the “block” via a new a-1,6 bond
– The new branch point is always at least 4 residues
away from an exisiting one
 Glycogen biosynthesis
• Why is glycogen branched?
 Glycogen biosynthesis
• Regeneration of UTP
Nucleoside
diphosphokinase
UDP + ATP UTP + ADP