The pentose phosphate pathway is a process of glucose turnover that produces NADPH as reducing equivalents and pentoses as essential parts of nucleotides. There are two different phases in the pathway. One is irreversible oxidative phase in which glucose-6P is converted to ribulose-5P by oxidative decarboxylation, and NADPH is generated [MD:M00006]. The other is reversible non-oxidative phase in which phosphorylated sugars are interconverted to generate xylulose-5P, ribulose-5P, and ribose-5P [MD:M00007]. Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) formed from ribose-5P [MD:M00005] is an activated compound used in the biosynthesis of histidine and purine/pyrimidine nucleotides. This pathway map also shows the Entner-Doudoroff pathway where 6-P-gluconate is dehydrated and then cleaved into pyruvate and glyceraldehyde-3P [MD:M00008].
Hove-Jensen B, Rosenkrantz TJ, Haldimann A, Wanner BL.
Title
Escherichia coli phnN, encoding ribose 1,5-bisphosphokinase activity (phosphoribosyl diphosphate forming): dual role in phosphonate degradation and NAD biosynthesis pathways.
Glyceraldehyde dehydrogenases from the thermoacidophilic euryarchaeota Picrophilus torridus and Thermoplasma acidophilum, key enzymes of the non-phosphorylative Entner-Doudoroff pathway, constitute a novel enzyme family within the aldehyde dehydrogenase superfamily.
The nonphosphorylative Entner-Doudoroff pathway in the thermoacidophilic euryarchaeon Picrophilus torridus involves a novel 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate- specific aldolase.
