Carbohydrate metabolism

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Carbohydrate metabolism is the whole of the biochemical processes responsible for the metabolic formation, breakdown, and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms, primarily for energy metabolism. Carbohydrate biology unrelated to energy metabolism is encompassed in the process of glycosylation, where complex carbohydrate chains or glycans are covalently linked to a massive range of macromolcules. Carbohydrates are central to many essential metabolic pathways. Plants synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water through photosynthesis, allowing them to store energy absorbed from sunlight internally. When animals and fungi consume plants, they use cellular respiration to break down these stored carbohydrates to make energy available to cells. Both animals and plants temporarily store the released energy in the form of high-energy molecules, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), for use in various cellular processes. While carbohydrates are essential to human biological...

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