In plants, including Solanum lycopersicum, plant mitochondria rarely respire amino acids, and thus require an alternate means of providing energy for respiration, which is why glycolysis is the primary means of fuelling respiration. Glycolysis occurs in the cytosol and the plastids. In the dark, both the chloroplasts and the plastids degrade starch to produce carbon backbones, adenosine triphosphate, and reductants necessary to feed anabolic pathways. In the cytosol, the same function is achieved from the degradation of sucrose. Glycolysis generates energy for the organism via the oxidation of hexose sugars to produce adenosine triphosphate. Interestingly, glycolysis is also an amphibolic pathway, which means it can reversibly produce hexoses from low molecular weight chemical species. This allows the pathway to run in either forward or reverse direction depending on the organism's demands, since all but two of the reactions in glycolysis are reversible.

Glycolysis References