Free Glycolysis Diagram Generator

A glycolysis diagram shows one glucose being split into two pyruvate. It traces the ten enzymatic reactions through the cytoplasm, marking where 2 ATP are invested and where 4 ATP and 2 NADH are produced, for a net gain of 2 ATP and 2 NADH. SciFig's glycolysis diagram generator can label every intermediate or leave the figure blank for practice.

Glycolysis has an energy-investment phase and an energy-payoff phase. In the first five steps, 2 ATP are consumed as hexokinase and phosphofructokinase phosphorylate glucose to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, which is then split into two three-carbon sugars. In the last five steps, those sugars are oxidized to two pyruvate while 4 ATP and 2 NADH are generated, which a glycolysis steps diagram places in sequence.

Glycolysis nets 2 ATP, 2 NADH, and 2 pyruvate per glucose. The payoff phase makes 4 ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation, but 2 ATP were spent in the investment phase, so the net gain is 2 ATP plus 2 NADH. A glycolysis pathway diagram labels each step where ATP is consumed or produced so the running total is easy to follow.

Describe the intermediates and labels you want and SciFig generates the figure for you. A fully labeled glycolysis diagram includes glucose, glucose-6-phosphate, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, the two G3P molecules, and the two pyruvate outputs, with ATP and NADH marked at the correct steps. SciFig's glycolysis diagram generator produces labeled or blank versions from the same scientifically accurate base.

Glycolysis takes place in the cytoplasm and needs no oxygen. Because it does not require the mitochondria, glycolysis can proceed anaerobically as well as aerobically. A clear glycolysis diagram shows the reactions running through the cytosol before pyruvate moves on to the next stage of respiration.

Glycolysis is the first stage of cellular respiration. It breaks glucose down into pyruvate in the cytoplasm, and that pyruvate then feeds the later aerobic stages of respiration in the mitochondria. Diagrams often show glycolysis as the entry point that supplies pyruvate and NADH to the rest of the pathway.