Glycogenesis

Glycogenesis is the synthesis of glycogen from glucose for storage, chiefly in liver and muscle. It converts glucose into a compact, branched reserve that can later be mobilized.

Glycogenin: A protein that initiates glycogen synthesis by attaching a short chain of glucose residues to itself. It provides the primer that glycogen synthase cannot make from scratch.
Glycogen: A branched glucose polymer that stores carbohydrate in animals and fungi. Glycogenesis builds this storage polymer from glucose units.
Liver glycogen: Glycogen stored in hepatocytes that helps maintain blood glucose between meals. Liver glycogenesis creates a reserve that can later support circulating glucose.
Glycolysis: A metabolic pathway that breaks glucose into pyruvate while producing ATP and NADH. It consumes glucose for immediate energy rather than storing it as glycogen.
UDP-glucose: An activated form of glucose used to donate glucose residues in glycogen synthesis. Its glucose is the immediate building material added to the growing glycogen chain.
Glucose: A six-carbon sugar that serves as a major fuel and metabolic building block. It is the starting substrate whose carbon enters stored glycogen.
Muscle glycogen: Glycogen stored in skeletal muscle as a local fuel for contraction. Muscle glycogenesis stores glucose for the tissue’s own energy demands.
Gluconeogenesis: The synthesis of glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors, chiefly in liver and kidney. It replenishes glucose rather than polymerizing available glucose for storage.
Glycogen synthase: An enzyme that extends glycogen chains by forming α-1,4 glycosidic bonds. It performs the main chain-elongation step of glycogenesis.
Glycosidic bond: A covalent bond that links a sugar’s anomeric carbon to another group or molecule. Glycogen’s α-1,4 and α-1,6 bonds determine its chain and branch structure.

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