Why only one of the enantiomers of glucose has that familiar sweet taste and only that enantiomer can fuel our cellular functioning?
1 Answer
Oct 26, 2014
Your first premise is incorrect. L-Glucose has the same taste as D-glucose.
L- Glucose cannot fuel our cellular functioning, because it cannot be phosphorylated by hexokinase, the first enzyme in the glycolysis pathway.
When this step is blocked, all future uses of glucose by the cell cannot happen.
