Which statement is NOT true regarding glycolysis?

Glycolysis is a metabolic pathway that breaks down glucose to extract energy. One of the key points of this pathway is that it does not fully degrade glucose to carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). Instead, glycolysis converts one molecule of glucose into two molecules of pyruvate, along with a net production of ATP and the reduction of NAD+ to NADH. This process occurs in the cytoplasm of the cell and is anaerobic, meaning it does not require oxygen. The primary aim of glycolysis is to produce ATP and NADH for further energy production in cellular respiration, particularly during aerobic or anaerobic respiration that follows the glycolytic process.

The statement asserting that glycolysis degrades glucose to CO2 and H2O is incorrect because this full oxidation of glucose occurs primarily in the later stages of cellular respiration (such as the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation), not during glycolysis itself. Hence, the focus of glycolysis is on the initial breakdown of glucose to pyruvate with energy extraction, rather than the complete oxidation of glucose.