Glycogen synthesis in amphibian oocytes: evidence for an indirect pathway

Glycogen is the main end product of glucose metabolism in amphibian oocytes. However, in the first few minutes after [U-14C]glucose microinjection most of the label is found in lactate. The burst of lactate production and the shape of the time curves for the labelling of glucose 6-phosphate, fructose 6-phosphate, glucose 1-phosphate and glycogen suggest a precursor-product relationship of lactate with respect to glycogen and its intermediates. Expansion (by microinjection) of the pool of glycolytic intermediates, such as dihydroxyacetone phosphate, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, 3-phosphoglycerate or phosphoenolpyruvate, results in a marked decrease in [U-14C]glucose incorporation into glycogen. After co-injection of doubly labelled glucoses, extensive detritiation (93%) of the glucosyl units of glycogen was observed with [2-3H, U-14C]glucose and partial detritiation with [3-3H,U-14C]glucose (34%) or [5-3H,U-14C]glucose (46%). After injection of [6-3H,U-14C]glucose, a small but significant and reproducible detritiation (13%) in glycogen was observed. Co-injection of [U-14C]glucose and 3-mercaptopicolinate resulted in marked inhibition of glycogen labelling. Half-maximal inhibition was observed at 0.58 mM 3-mercaptopicolinate, which agrees with the IC50 value (0.47 mM) for the inhibition in vitro of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity. We concluded that in frog oocytes most of the glucosyl units are incorporated into glycogen by an indirect pathway involving breakdown of glucose to lactate, which is then converted into glycogen via gluconeogenesis. Both processes, glycolytic degradation of glucose to lactate and subsequent reconversion of the latter into hexose phosphates and glycogen, occur in the same cell.