Glycolysis & Metabolic Fate of Pyruvate — NEET Biology
📚 Practice ConceptWhen you study respiration in Chapter 12, you will study these reactions. At this stage you should know that this very metabolic pathway with one or two additional reactions gives rise to a variety of metabolic end products. In our skeletal muscle, under anaerobic conditions, lactic acid is formed. Under normal aerobic conditions, pyruvic acid is formed. In yeast, during fermentation, the same pathway leads to the production of ethanol (alcohol). Hence, in different conditions different products are possible.
A clinician notes lactic acid in an athlete’s muscle after sprinting; the same metabolic pathway yields ethanol in yeast but pyruvate aerobically. Which enzyme principle and pathway property together explain this?
View solution & NCERT explanation
Correct answer: B — Enzymes catalyse same pathway yielding different products under varying conditions
Glycolysis produces pyruvate aerobically, but in absence of oxygen forms lactic acid (muscles) or ethanol (yeast) — all enzyme-catalysed, same pathway, different outcomes.
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Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 176 of the 180 ReNEET 2026 (June 21) questions were already in the MedicNEET question bank before the exam.
176/180MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.