Expert: Walter Hintz - 3/10/2008

Question
Can you help me calculate the efficiency of glycolysis if the number of ATP molecules produced during glycolysis were 5 tomes greater?

Answer
 Hi Jake.
It is my understanding that the efficiency of glycolysis is very low at about 2%.  I am not sure if increasing the number of ATP molecules produced would indicate a 10% efficiency however. The metabolism of one molecule of glucose yields 36-38 molecules of ATP and due to the very nature of the metabolic process I know of no way that that can increase.  You might try googling "efficiency of glycolysis" to get more information.