Monosaccharides are used as energy reserves in plants. Although a large plethora of substrates such as proteins and lipids
can be oxidized in plants, respiration tends to be dominated by carbohydrate oxidation through the glycolytic pathway and
the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) or Citric acid cycle. Carbohydrate is converted into pyruvate and malate by two major
pathways, glycolysis and the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway. The primary roles of the pentose phosphate pathway are
to generate NADPH for use in biosynthetic reactions and to provide ribose 5-phosphate for nucleotide synthesis and
erythrose 4-phosphate for the synthesis of shikimic acid derivatives.