Fatty acids can enter stage 3 as which of the following?

Question

acetyl-Coenzyme A

pyruvate

glucose

phosphoglyceraldehyde (PGAL)

oxaloacetate

Clear selection

Answer 1

Based on the context, I'm thinking that this is a cellular respiration question. However, I'm not 100% clear on what "stage 3" means here. I usually think of cellular respiration in three steps: glycolysis, Krebs/citric acid cycle, and electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation. That makes 3 steps.

Fatty acids are primarily long(ish) chain hydrocarbons (built of C and H). In cells, these are broken into 2 carbon fragments and then converted into acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA, regardless of source, enters the Krebs cycle to be rearranged/reduced/etc. Stage 3 in this question will remain a mystery (to me).