pentose phosphate pathway
Last reviewed 01/2018
The pentose phosphate pathway describes the utilization of glucose-6-phosphate and NADP for the production of NADPH and ribose-5-phosphate.
It has several roles:
- biosynthetic: provision of precursor ribose-5-phosphate for:
- DNA synthesis
- RNA synthesis
- nucleotide co-enzyme synthesis
- energy production; NADPH is required for pathways such as fatty acid synthesis