The10-MinuteUreaCycle.pptVIP

The 10-Minute Urea Cycle * This tutorial will show you that the urea cycle, perhaps the most important cycle in nitrogen metabolism, can be mastered in 10 minutes. Follow the instructions and convince yourself by the test at the end that you know this cycle. Another important point of the tutorial is to show you that learning structures are the key to developing a confidence in biochemical pathways. So, start your clock and click 1 for the first slide. As with most biochemical pathways, the urea cycle should be mastered by working backwards. Let’s start by drawing the last component in the pathway …Arginine (click 1). As you study the structure of arginine try to imagine all of the intermediates in the pathway built into this one molecule. Perhaps some color will help. Arginine is the immediate source of urea. Can you see urea in arginine. Oh, excuse me!. Click 1 to see urea. Now, can you see urea in arginine (click 1). The oxygen is obtained from H2O when the urea molecule is hydrolyzed free by the enzyme arginase. H2N NH2 C O COO CH2 CH2 CH2 H3N-C-H NH HN=C NH2 – + + Urea Ornithine O Citrulline After the urea is removed by hydrolysis, what remains is ornithine (click 1). Ornithine reacts with carbamoyl-PO4 to form citrulline (click 1). Now that you know how three compounds fit into the arginine molecule, its time to assemble arginine (click 1 to go on). Arginine assembly starts with ornithine (click 1). First, you must make the carbamoyl-PO4 that condenses with ornithine (click 1). As you can see below, carbamoyl-PO4 is assembled from NH4+ and CO2 using 2ATPs as an energy source and the enzyme carbamoyl-PO4 synthetase I . NH4+ + CO2 + 2ATP H2N C O OPO3= + 2ADP + Pi Carbamoyl-PO4 reacts with ornithine to form citrulline (click 1). Phosphate is liberated in the reaction (click 1). Once citrulline is formed , all you have to do to make arginine is to replace the oxygen on the citrulline with a nitrogen group (click 1). COO- CH2 CH2