Glycolysis is a metabolic pathway that takes place in the cytosol of cells in all living organisms. Glycolysis can be literally translated as "sugar splitting", and occurs regardless of oxygen's presence or absence. In aerobic conditions, the process converts one molecule of glucose into two molecules of pyruvate (pyruvic acid), generating energy in the form of two net molecules of ATP. Four molecules of ATP per glucose are actually produced, but two are consumed as part of the preparatory phase. The initial phosphorylation of glucose is required to increase the reactivity (decrease its stability) in order for the molecule to be cleaved into two pyruvate molecules by the enzyme aldolase. During the pay-off phase of glycolysis, four phosphate groups are transferred to four ADP by substrate-level phosphorylation to make four ATP, and two NADH are produced when the pyruvate is oxidized. The overall reaction can be expressed this way:
:Glucose + 2 NAD + 2 P + 2 ADP → 2 pyruvate + 2 H + 2 NADH + 2 ATP + 2 H + 2 HO + energy
Starting with glucose, 1 ATP is used to donate a phosphate to glucose to produce glucose 6-phosphate. Glycogen can be converted into glucose 6-phosphate as well with the help of glycogen phosphorylase. During energy metabolism, glucose 6-phosphate becomes fructose 6-phosphate. An additional ATP is used to phosphorylate fructose 6-phosphate into fructose 1,6-bisphosphate by the help of phosphofructokinase. Fructose 1,6-biphosphate then splits into two phosphorylated molecules with three carbon chains which later degrades into pyruvate.