Biological Function
PGK is present in all living organisms as one of the two ATP-generating enzymes in glycolysis. In the gluconeogenic pathway, PGK catalyzes the reverse reaction. Under biochemical standard conditions, the glycolytic direction is favored.
In the Calvin cycle in photosynthetic organisms, PGK catalyzes the phosphorylation of 3-PG, producing 1,3-BPG and ADP, as part of the reactions that regenerate ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate.
PGK has been reported to exhibit thiol reductase activity on plasmin, leading to angiostatin formation, which inhibits angiogenesis and tumor growth. The enzyme was also shown to participate in DNA replication and repair in mammal cell nuclei.
The human isozyme PGK2, which is only expressed during spermatogenesis, was shown to be essential for sperm function in mice.
Read more about this topic: Phosphoglycerate Kinase
Famous quotes containing the words biological and/or function:
“I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute—a white skin.”
—Desmond Tutu (b. 1931)
“The mother’s and father’s attitudes toward the child correspond to the child’s own needs.... Mother has the function of making him secure in life, father has the function of teaching him, guiding him to cope with those problems with which the particular society the child has been born into confronts him.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)