清华大学生物化学氨基酸分解和尿素生成课件.pptxVIP

Chapter 18Amino Acid Oxidation and the Production of Urea1. The surplus amino acids in animals can be completely oxidized or converted to other storable fuels Amino acids in excess (from diet, protein turnover) can neither be stored, nor excreted, but oxidized to release energy or converted to fatty acids or glucose.Animals also utilize amino acid for energy generation during starvation or in diabetes mellitus (糖尿病).Microorganisms can also use amino acids as an energy source when the supply is in excess.Plants almost never use amino acids as an energy source (neither fatty acids).2. Dietary proteins are digested into amino acids in the gastrointestinal tractPepsin cleaves polypeptides into smaller peptides in stomach (N-terminal side of Phe, Trp and Tyr residues).Trypsin (C-terminal side of Arg and Lys) and chymotrypsin (C-terminal side of Phe, Trp and Tyr) further cleave the peptides in small intestine.Carboxypeptidase and aminopeptidase cleave the small peptides into amino acids, which are then absorbed and eventually delivered to liver.Part of the human digestive (gastrointestinal) tract3. The amino groups and the carbon skeletons of amino acids take separate but interconnected pathwaysThe amino group is reused or excreted, as ammonia, urea (via the urea cycle) or uric acid.The carbon skeletons (a-keto acids) generally find their way to the citric acid cycle for further oxidation or conversion.The degradation of the carbon skeletons may be very complicated but similar to that of fatty acids in some cases.Overview of amino acid catabolism in mammals4. Liver is the major site of amino acid degradation in vertebrates Glutamate, a-ketoglutarate and pyruvate collects amino groups (in forms of Gln, Glu and Ala) to liver mitochondria for further processing.The excess NH4+ is excreted directly in bony fishes, or as urea in most terrestrial vertebrates, or as uric acid in birds and terrestrial reptiles.The carbons in both urea and uric acid are highly oxidized (with most