What metabolic substrate(s) are produced from the carbon atoms of each of the following amino acids?
b. asparagine

Question

What metabolic substrate(s) are produced from the carbon atoms of each of the following amino acids?

b. asparagine

Accepted Answer

All right. Hi, everyone. So this question says during metabolism, which compounds are directly produced from the carbon atoms of the amino acid aspartate. Option A says Acito Coe and Acito Acito Coe. Option B says oxalic acetate and fumarate. Option C says fumarate and acito acito coe and option D says oxalic acetate and alpha keto gid. So recall first and foremost that amino acids in our cells can undergo a reaction known as transamination. So essentially when we take an amino acid as our starting material, the amino group of the amino acid is transferred to a different substrate. The result is that the the amino acid is converted into an alpha keto acid. And so the carbon atoms of the alpha keto acid can then be transformed into one of many energy producing intermediates in our bodies. Now, the answer choices have listed quite a few of them, right? We have Aceto coa aceto atoa oxyl acetate, fumarate and alpha ketoglutarate among a few others. Pyruvate and Sueno Koe are two more that have not been mentioned here. And so this brings us now to the memory tools that I've written down on the bottom of the screen here. These memory tools give us a few of the different amino acids that can produce two main energy producing intermediates. My first phrase here is oxen aspire to eat asparagus which represents oxalic acetate. The second phrase is Furious tires flying on asphalt, which represents fumarate specifically which amino acids produce either either energy producing intermediate. So starting off with the first one again, right? For oxalic acetate, there are two main amino acids that can be made into it. We have aspartate, which is based on the word aspire here in the phrase. And we also have asparagine from the phrase asparagus. Now for fumarate, we have a few different others. We have tyrosine from the phrase tires in the memory device. We have Pheno Alanine from the letter F in flying, which is the one letter code for pheno Alanine. And we have aspartate from the phrase asphalt. So to summarize tyrosine phenylalanine and aspartate can be broken down to produce fumarate. Now because the question is focusing on aspartate, in particular, we can see that aspartate is present in both memory devices, which means that it can be used to produce both oxo acetate and fumarate, meaning that B is our correct answer choice and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching. And I hope you found this helpful

What metabolic substrate(s) are produced from the carbon atoms of each of the following amino acids?
b. asparagine

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Amino Acid Metabolism

Asparagine Catabolism

Metabolic Substrates