PathwayStep997 PathwayStep995 PathwayStep996 Fructose catabolism Authored: 2003-03-01 00:00:00 Fructose occurs naturally in foods as a free monosaccharide and as a component of the disaccharide sucrose. It is also widely used as a sweetener. In the body, fructose is converted to dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, two intermediates in the glycolytic pathway, in a sequence of three reactions: fructose is phosphorylated, then cleaved by aldolase to yield dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde, and the latter compound is phosphorylated to yield D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. Other pathways exist for the conversion of D-glyceraldehyde to intermediates of glycolysis, but these appear to play only a minor role in normal fructose metabolism.<P>The cleavage of fructose 1-phosphate is catalyzed by the same enzyme that catalyzes the reversible cleavage of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate in glycolysis. The isoform of this enzyme found in liver, kidney, and intestine (B) is approximately equally active with fructose 1-phosphate and fructose 1,6-bisphosphate as substrates, while the muscle and brain isoforms (A and C, respectively), have little activity with fructose 1-phosphate. Fructose metabolism thus occurs mainly in tissues expressing the B isoform, and mutations that affect the catalytic activity of this isoform are associated with hereditary fructose intolerance (Steinmann et al. 2001). GENE ONTOLOGYGO:0006001 Reactome Database ID Release 4370350 Reactome, http://www.reactome.org ReactomeREACT_1571 ATP + D-glyceraldehyde => ADP + D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate D-fructose 1-phosphate <=> D-glyceraldehyde + dihydroxyacetone phosphate ATP + beta-D-fructose => ADP + D-fructose 1-phosphate