Metabolic pathway

From Wikinfo

In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a series of chemical reactions within a biological cell, catalyzed by enzymes, which either results in the removal of a molecule from the environment to be used/stored by the cell (metabolic sink), or the initiation of another metabolic pathway (also called flux generating step).

Most metabolic pathways have common properties :

• They are irreversible, usually because the first step is a committed step that only runs in one direction.
• The pathways are regulated, usually by feedback inhibition.
• Anabolic and catabolic pathways in eukaryotes are separated by either compartmentation or by the use of different enzymes and cofactors.

Major Metabolic Pathways

• Krebs cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle)
• Pentose phosphate pathway (hexose monophosphate shunt)
• Glycolysis
• Gluconeogenesis
• Urea cycle
• Fatty acid oxidation (beta oxidation)

See also : catabolism

External links : Google directory

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Metabolic_pathway" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_pathway, used under the GNU Free Documentation License