BIOLCHEM 415 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Transamination, Fumaric Acid, Oxidative Deamination
Document Summary
Important for the synthesis of nucleotide bases and used for synthesizing hormones. Amino acids when taken in through the diet are utilized for biosynthetic reactions. If they are in excess, they will be degraded. Occurs mostly in the liver and can occur in the muscles as a source of energy. Amino acids can"t be stored and thus are degraded. Amino acids have an imine group and a carbon skeleton with a carboxylic acid. Most of the amino acids are going to undergo a two step process. The enzyme that catalyzes the first step are called aminotransferase=transaminase. The enzymes take the alpha amino group of the amino acid that they will degrade and transfer it to an alpha ketoacid. Once you remove this, you"re left behind with a carbon skeleton which is an alpha ketoacid and get a second amino acid. Often you"ll transfer the alpha amino group to an alpha ketoglutarate.