BIOCHEMICAL MECHANISMS OF THE BREAKDOWN OF COMPLEX MOLECULES

Abstract

There are two main reasons for studying a metabolic pathway: (1) to describe, in quantitative terms, the chemical changes catalyzed by the component enzymes of the route; and (2) to describe the various intracellular controls that govern the rate at which the pathway functions. Studies with whole organisms or organs can provide information that one substance is converted to another and that this process is localized in a certain tissue; for example, experiments can show that urea, the chief nitrogen-containing end product of protein metabolism in mammals, is formed exclusively in the liver. They cannot reveal, however, the details of the enzymatic steps involved. Clues to the identity of the products involved, and to the possible chemical changes effected by component enzymes, can be provided in any of four ways involving studies with either whole organisms or tissues.