The periodic behavior of glycolysis has been observed in various
organisms and cell types, namely in yeast. These oscillations occur in
yeast when cells are shifted from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. This
is usually achieved by adding D-glucose to starved and aerated yeast cells,
followed by cyanide or other mitochondrial respiration inhibitor. It is
therefore possible to observe sustained oscillations in the glycolytic
NADH concentration.
Are there metabolic products that can induce glycolytic oscillations? If so, what metabolites are those? How do they act, and why? These questions are waiting to be answered in a near future.