Fructose catabolism

Fructose occurs naturally in foods as a free monosaccharide and as a component of the disaccharide sucrose. It is also widely used as a sweetener. In the body, fructose catabolism occurs in the liver and to a lesser extent in the kidney and small intestine. In these tissues, it is converted to dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, two intermediates in the glycolytic pathway, in a sequence of three reactions. It is phosphorylated to form fructose 1-phosphate, which is cleaved by aldolase to yield dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde, and the latter compound is phosphorylated to yield D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. Other pathways exist for the conversion of D-glyceraldehyde to intermediates of glycolysis, but these appear to play only a minor role in normal fructose metabolism.

Summary from Reactome (R-HSA-70350), read 2026-09-23.