As for the TCA cycle, the first reports of assemblies of glycolytic enzymes appeared more than 40 years ago. Initial evidence, much disputed [
26,
80], came from observations of independent pools of glycolytic intermediates in
E. coli and rats [
81,
82]. Subsequently, stronger evidence for assemblies of glycolytic enzymes emerged, including direct evidence of specific interactions between sequential pairs of glycolytic enzymes, interaction of enzymes of glycolysis and actin [
83,
84] or red blood cell membranes [
82,
83], isolation of glycolytic particles, complexes of all glycolytic enzymes [
82,
83] and electron microscopic evidence [
85]. Early examples include glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase binding to microsomal fractions of skeletal muscle [
86] and aldolase binding to microsomal fractions of rat liver [
87]. There is evidence that glycolytic enzymes interact with red blood cell membranes [
88] and interestingly that the degree of binding is environmentally dependent [
89]. Likewise aldolase, glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate kinase were demonstrated to bind to columns onto which the F-actin- tropomyosin complex had been bound [
90]. A particular breakthrough in establishing the occurrence of glycolytic enzyme assemblies was observations of specific interactions between sequential enzymes with glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase and aldolase being a recurrently observed pairing [
28]. These interactions were revealed by a number of experimental approaches including kinetic studies, polarization of fluorescence, affinity electrophoresis [
39], and cocentrifugation of sequential enzyme activities. Similar observations have been made for aldolase and triose phosphate isomerase [
91], glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase and phosphoglycerate kinase [
92], and the entire subpathway operating between fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate, and phosphoenolpyruvate [
93]. However, simple gel filtration of cell extracts of
E. coli [
94] and
S. cerevisiae [
28] revealed only a small proportion of the enzymes to be in complex with one another. Additionally, phosphorylation of phosphofructokinase alters not only its kinetic behavior, but also its binding to actin [
95]. There is also a large body of evidence that suggests interaction of glycolytic enzymes with mitochondria. For example, a study of
Tetrahymena pyriformis revealed that 100% of lactate dehydrogenase, 75% of phosphofructokinase, and 50% of glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase are bound to mitochondria [
88–
90], while binding of hexokinase to the mitochondrial membrane was recognized early to be a common feature of eukaryotes [
28]. It was postulated that this location of hexokinase was advantageous in terms of energy efficiency, providing ready access to the ATP being generated by the mitochondria [
28]. Also relevant is the intriguing presence in trypanosomes of the glycosome, a specialized organelle that contains all of the glycolytic enzymes [
96]. A potential explanation for this is that this organism generates all its ATP via glycolysis. Notably, the trypanosome glycolytic enzymes can be isolated as a complex following the removal of the organellar membrane leading to the suggestion that metabolic channelling occurs, with associated kinetic and regulatory benefits [
28]. We will provide a critical analysis of this concept later in the article.