Metaboilic Pathways Flashcards
Metabolic Pathway
A metabolic pathway is a series of biochemical reactions which are controlled by enzymes which produce proteins required for other reactions in the body.
In a metabolic pathways the product of one reactions is the reactant (substrate) for the next reaction.
For each reaction in the metabolic pathway, a specific enzyme is coded for by a specific gene. Any mutations or error in the gene, could result in the enzyme being non-functional or not being produced.
Mutation
A mutation which is a permanent change in the base sequence of DNA, when occurring at the start of the metabolic pathway impacts the rest of the reactions as they will not occur. However, a mutation in a gene at the end of a metabolic pathway will be less impactful.
Enzyme
The reactions in metabolic pathways are catalyzed by enzymes. Ab enzyme is a biological catalyst which speeds up chemical reactions without being used up in the reaction. Each enzyme is coded for by a certain gene. Any mutations such as block or point mutations in the base sequence of the gene could cause the enzyme to not be functional or to not be produced. This could be due to mutations like inversion, deletion, insertion which cause reading frame shifts.
Primary substrate, intermediate products becomes substrate for the next reaction.
1st substance or substrate of the metabolic pathway.
Examples of formatting
Include/ incorporate the information and data from the question in your answers not jsut definitions.
Unusual phenotypes
There must be an error/ fault in the enzyme catalysing the reaction. Reduced enzyme activity could be due to various factors such as the environment, enzyme denatured which causes the enzyme to lose its shape and become less functional, and error during protein synthesis in a gene, enzyme inhibitors (competitive). Reduced enzyme activity results in the production of (x) to not occur. This disrupts the entire metabolic pathway abd expresses the unusual phenotype.
