Glycogen synthase regulating glycogen/glucose levels and is activated by dephosphorylation. In humans, there are two paralogous isozymes of glycogen synthase: The liver enzyme expression is restricted to the liver, whereas the muscle enzyme is widely expressed. Liver glycogen serves as a storage pool to maintain the blood glucose level during fasting, whereas muscle glycogen synthesis accounts for disposal of up to 90% of ingested glucose. The role of muscle glycogen is as a reserve to provide energy during bursts of activity. Meanwhile, the muscle isozyme plays a major role in the cellular response to long-term adaptation to hypoxia. Notably, hypoxia only induces
Glycogen synthase asymmetric form, glycogen synthase is found as a dimer, whose monomers are composed of two Rossmann-fold domains. This structural property, among others, is shared with related enzymes, such as glycogen phosphorylase and other glycosyltransferases of the GT-B superfamily. Nonetheless, a more recent characterization of the "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" (yeast) glycogen synthase crystal structure reveals that the dimers may actually interact to form a tetramer. Specifically, The inter-subunit interactions are mediated by the α15/16 helix pairs, forming allosteric sites between subunits in one combination of dimers and active sites between subunits in the other combination of dimers. Since the structure of eukaryotic