Good morning, all you biochemists out there!

What is the name of the reaction that converts pyruvate to acetyl CoA (just before the acetyl CoA enters the Krebs cycle). My understanding is that this conversion is not part of the Krebs cycle, nor part of glycolysis (splitting glucose into two pyruvates).

Does it have a name? Or is it normally lumped with one or the other of these two other well-described processes? (I never took biochemistry at all, so please answer at my autodidact level.)

Many thanks!
Asking

Hi I'm a biochemist, I can't recall it ever having a specific name and I would consider it part of the Krebs Cycle just not the cyclic part but never part of glycoslysis. I have never thought about whether it had a name! I always thought of it as a feeding reaction.

Right had a little look around and all the web pages I looked at didn't give it a name, probably because it isn't a nifty cycle. But this website Respiration describes where the acetyl coA comes from (fat oxidation)

I just liked this one
Citric Acid Cycle Reactions

You've got me thinking,I'm going to go track down my old notes but I think if it was named in them I would know (I memorised most of those lectures- it didn't come up on the test :()

Either way if you left it out of your writing no one would be up in arms.

Some info on the reaction

It is Pyruvate is oxidatively decarboxylated to form acetyl CoA by pyruvate dehydrogenase

Pyruvate dehydrogenase is a 3 enzyme multicomplex - this helps speed up the reaction and by making sure substrates don't diffuse away and elliminating wasteful side reactions

It is irrevesible and occurs in the mitochondrian

I suppose if you were to name it it would be more than fair just to call it the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate.

Hope this helps- good luck with your research

Many thanks, Templelane! You are wonderful to give such a thorough answer so quickly!
This is all I needed to know. I am editing an online biology course, and the author has sort of muddled it so the self test gives answers that are mildly incorrect unless you consider pyr-->CoA part of the Krebs cycle. But he doesn't actually say it IS part of the krebs cycle either. Now I know what to do.

Thanks again!
Asking

Quote:

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Originally Posted by templelane

I suppose if you were to name it it would be more than fair just to call it the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate.

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Ah! It does have a name! Has a kind of ring to it. I can't wait to try it out at a party. So, what do you think about the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate?

Cheers (and more thanks),
A

Quote:

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Originally Posted by asking

Good morning, all you biochemists out there!

What is the name of the reaction that converts pyruvate to acetyl CoA (just before the acetyl CoA enters the Krebs cycle). My understanding is that this conversion is not part of the Krebs cycle, nor part of glycolysis (splitting glucose into two pyruvates).

Does it have a name? Or is it normally lumped with one or the other of these two other well-described processes? (I never took biochemistry at all, so please answer at my autodidact level.)

Many thanks!
Asking

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Hi. The process involves an oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetyl Coa ultizing the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex enzyme