Nitrogen metabolic processes

A protein that is unduT7 rich in the ten essential amino acids would not provide sufficient nitrogen for other metabolic processes without obligatory catabolism of the essential amino acids. Thus, the proportion of the total nitrogen intake that essential amino acids form indicate how a given protein fulfills nutritional requirements for proteins. This proportion, the E/T ratio (54), indicative of the amount of protein nitrogen supplied by essential amino acids, is (in g of essential amino acids per g of nitrogen)... 

Urea ((NH2)2CO), a small and highly water soluble molecule, is an end product of amine and ammonia nitrogen metabolism and as such represents an example of biodetoxification (Section 6.4). The process is discussed in this section because it illustrates a genuine de novo biosynthetic pathway rather than detoxification involving chemical modification, via phase I and phase II reactions, of a pre-existing molecule as is the case for haem or steroid hormones. 

Urea is a colorless, odorless crystalline substance discovered by Hilaire Marin Rouelle (1718—1779) in 1773, who obtained urea by boiling urine. Urea is an important biochemical compound and also has numerous industrial applications. It is the primary nitrogen product of protein (nitrogen) metabolism in humans and other mammals. The breakdown of amino acids results in ammonia, NH3, which is extremely toxic to mammals. To remove ammonia from the body, ammonia is converted to urea in the liver in a process called the urea cycle. The urea in the blood moves to the kidney where it is concentrated and excreted with urine. 

The nutritional need for accessory food factors was first stated explicitly in 1905-1906, although the influence of diet in preventing or curing some diseases such as scurvy had long been known. The name vitamine was proposed in 1912, but the terminal e was dropped when it was realized that not all these compounds are nitrogenous bases. The vitamins serve as coenzymes in various metabolic processes, and the necessary quantities are usually supplied by an adequate diet or by synthesis by the intestinal flora. Vitamin deficiency can arise from a failure to absorb the compound from the gut. The symptoms of deficiency vary in different animal species, and not all the substances found necessary in other species have been shown to be essential for human nutrition. Vitamins are used for the prevention or cure of deficiency diseases and for some other pathological conditions,... 

The phosphate ester of the aldehyde form of vitamin B6, pyridoxal phosphate (pyridoxal-P or PLP), is required by many enzymes catalyzing reactions of amino acids and amines. The reactions are numerous, and pyridoxal phosphate is surely one of nature s most versatile catalysts. The story begins with biochemical transamination, a process of central importance in nitrogen metabolism. In 1937, Alexander Braunstein and Maria Kritzmann, in Moscow, described the transamination reaction by which amino groups can be transferred from one carbon skeleton to another.139 140 For example, the amino group of glutamate can be transferred to the carbon skeleton of oxaloacetate to form aspartate and 2-oxoglutarate (Eq. 14-24). 

This transamination reaction is a widespread process of importance in many aspects of the nitrogen metabolism of organisms. A large series of transaminases (aminotransferases), for which glutamate is most often one of the reactants, have been shown to catalyze the reactions of other oxoacids and amino acids.141-143... 

Many compounds have been tested simultaneously with (2-chloroethyl)tri-methylammonium chloride on Thatcher wheat, to ascertain, if possible, whether these chemicals were affecting a particular metabolic process. Other cholinesterase inhibitors such as eserine, diisopropyl fluorophosphate, and nitrogen mustard, neither negated the effect from (2-chloroethyl)trimethylammonium chloride nor altered the growth of the plant themselves. Many other substances were also without effect on the action of (2-chloroethyl)trimethylammonium chloride. A very slight reversal of the alteration by (2-chloroethyl)trimethylam-monium chloride was obtained by 10 2 and 10 3 M choline, betaine, and adenine. Only gibberellin completely and rapidly reversed the shorter growth pattern of a plant which had been treated with (2-chloroethyl)trimethylammonium chloride. 

In addition to being incorporated into tissue proteins, amino acids, after losing their nitrogen atoms by deamination and/or transamination, may be catabolized to yield energy or to form glucose. Conversely, the nonessential amino acids may be synthesized from carbohydrate metabolism intermediates and ammonia or from essential amino acids. This section is devoted to the mechanisms of such metabolic processes and their interrelationships with carbohydrate and lipid metabolic pathways. 

Amines are a series of compounds containing carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. They are part of the building blocks for the important protein molecules involved in metabolic processes. Amines are compounds similar to ammonia, but have one or more of their hydrogens replaced by a carbon chain, e.g. CH3. When one hydrogen of ammonia is replaced, the series is called the primary amines (Figure 5.1) with two Hs replaced, the series is called the secondary amines, and with all three replaced, tertiary amines. 

A number of other enzymes deserve consideration because they are involved in pathways that are closely linked to nitrogen metabolism, such as Rubisco and other carboxylases that are critical to the coupling of C and N metabolism (Huppe and Turpin, 1994), or electron transport system (ETS) enzymes such as isocitrate dehydrogenase that are involved in respiratory metabolism (Roy and Packard, 2001). Others are relevant to N losses (e.g., esterases that are used as indices of cell lysis Agusti et al., 1998 or proteases associated with active cell death processes, e.g., Berman-Frank et al, 2004) (Table 32.1). 

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