Nitrogen 2

Question 1

Which is the only amino acid that can loose its nitrogen by transamination?

Answer 1

Glutamate

Question 2

How ammonia transported safely in the blood stream?

Answer 2

As glutamine

Question 3

When is alanine made in the muscle and how?

Answer 3

Vigorously working muscles that operate anaerobically yield pyruvate that cannot be metabolised.

Pyruvate is converted to alanine and transported to the liver

Question 4

What does the liver do with the pyruvate?

Answer 4

Gluconeogenesis

Question 5

What is the charge of glutamate, glutamine and alanine?

Answer 5

Glutamate has a negative charge

Glutamine and alanine have no charge

Question 6

What happens after the removal of the amino group in amino acids?

Answer 6

Carbon skeletons are converted to glucose or oxidised as part of the the citric acid cycle.

Question 7

How many amino acids are essential?

Answer 7

There are 8

We need to get these from our diet

Question 8

What are the two different types of ketone bodies?

Answer 8

Glucogenic and ketogenic

Question 9

What are glucogenic carbon skeletons?

Answer 9

They feed into gluconeogenesis and so produce glucose or glycogen in the liver

Question 10

What are ketogenic carbon skeletons?

Answer 10

They feed into acetoacetate or acetyl CoA (and cannot result in gluconeogenesis)

Question 11

Which compound donates nitrogen into the urea cycle?

Answer 11

Carbomyl phosphate