The glucosidic pathways and glucose production by frog muscle

Resting muscle is generally perceived as a glucose-utilizing organ; however, we show that resting well-oxygenated frog muscle recovering from strenuous exercise can release significant amounts of glucose. The metabolic pathway responsible for this process does not involve glucose-6-phosphatase because this enzyme is undetectable in frog muscle. The participation of amylo-1,6-glucosidase in the production of glucose is also ruled out since neither marked net phosphorolytic breakdown of glycogen nor considerable cycling between glycogen and glucose 6-phosphate occur. The glucosidic pathways of glycogen breakdown are the likely source of glucose as they are the only metabolic avenues with sufficient capacity to account for the rate at which glucose is released from post-exercised muscle. This rate of glucose production is high enough to be of physiological importance. Our results clearly indicate that to measure lactate glycogenesis in muscle, the simultaneous hydrolysis of muscle glycogen by the glucosidic pathways must be taken into account to prevent marked underestimation of the rate of glycogen synthesis. The glucosidic pathways seem the predominant avenues of glycogen breakdown in post-exercised resting frog muscle and are active enough to account for the rate of glycogen breakdown in resting muscle, suggesting that these rather than the phosphorolytic pathways are the chief routes of glycogen breakdown in resting muscle.