D-Xylulose 5-phosphate (D-xylulose-5-P) is an intermediate in the

pentose phosphate pathway The pentose phosphate pathway (also called the phosphogluconate pathway and the hexose monophosphate shunt and the HMP Shunt) is a metabolic pathway parallel to glycolysis. It generates NADPH and pentoses (5-carbon sugars) as well as ribose 5-pho ...

. It is a

ketose A ketose is a monosaccharide containing one ketone group per molecule. The simplest ketose is dihydroxyacetone, which has only three carbon atoms. It is the only ketose with no optical activity. All monosaccharide ketoses are reducing sugars, be ...

sugar formed from

ribulose-5-phosphate Ribulose 5-phosphate is one of the end-products of the pentose phosphate pathway. It is also an intermediate in the Calvin cycle. It is formed by phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, and it can be acted upon by phosphopentose isomerase and phosphopen ...

. Although previously thought of mainly as an intermediary in the pentose phosphate pathway, recent research reported that the sugar has a role in gene expression, mainly by promoting the

ChREBP Carbohydrate-responsive element-binding protein (ChREBP) also known as MLX-interacting protein-like (MLXIPL) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MLXIPL'' gene. The protein name derives from the protein's interaction with carbohydrate r ...

transcription factor In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence. The fu ...

in the well-fed state. However, more recent study showed that D-glucose-6-phosphate, rather than D-xylulose-5-phosphate, is essential for the activation of ChREBP in response to glucose.

References

Monosaccharide derivatives Organophosphates {{biochem-stub