Portal:Metabolism

The Metabolism Portal

Welcome to the Metabolism portal. Metabolism is the modification of biological chemicals by a complex network of enzymatic chemical reactions which occur within the cell. Metabolic processes are vital for life, they provide the raw ingredients for all cell processes, including protein biosynthesis and DNA replication, produce energy for the cell in the form of ATP and breakdown harmful substances such as ethanol. Metabolism is broken down into many separate interconnecting metabolic pathways for ease of study.

Metabolism is a field within biochemistry and molecular biology.

A summary of the major metabolic pathways. Major compounds are shown in black text in white boxes, and metabolic pathways are shown as text links.

Glucuronate metabolism

Pentose interconversion

Inositol metabolism

Cellulose and sucrose
metabolism

Starch and glycogen
metabolism

Other sugar
metabolism

Pentose phosphate pathway

Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis

Amino sugars metabolism

Small amino acid synthesis

Branched amino acid
synthesis

Purine biosynthesis

Histidine metabolism

Aromatic amino
acid synthesis

Pyruvate
decarboxylation

Fermentation

Fatty acid
metabolism

Urea cycle

Aspartate amino acid
group synthesis

Porphyrins and
corrinoids
metabolism

Citric acid cycle

Glutamate amino
acid group
synthesis

Pyrimidine biosynthesis

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	All pathway labels on this image are links, simply click to access the article.
	A high resolution labeled version of this image is available here.

Selected article

Glycolysis is a metabolic pathway by which a 6-carbon glucose (Glc) molecule is oxidized to two molecules of pyruvic acid (Pyr). The word glycolysis is derived from Greek glukus (sweet) and lusis (rupture). It is the initial process of most carbohydrate catabolism, and it serves three principal functions:

• The generation of high-energy molecules (ATP and NADH) as cellular energy sources as part of anaerobic respiration.
• Production of pyruvate for the citric acid cycle as part of aerobic respiration.
• The production of a variety of six- and three-carbon intermediate compounds, which may be removed at various steps in the process for other cellular purposes.

Yeast hexokinase B, an enzyme of glycolysis. PDB 1IG8.

As the foundation of both aerobic and anaerobic respiration, glycolysis is the archetype of universal metabolic processes known and occurs (with variations) in many types of cells in nearly all organisms. Glycolysis, through anaerobic respiration, is the main energy source in many prokaryotes, eukaryotic cells devoid of mitochondria (e.g. mature erythrocytes) and eukaryotic cells under low oxygen conditions (e.g. heavily exercising muscle or fermenting yeast).

More...

Did you know...

• ...that human metabolism cannot synthesise 8 to 10 (depending on age) of the 20 standard amino acids?
• ...that the sugar ribose is vital for all life as it is used in the synthesis of DNA, RNA and ATP?
• ...that nitrogen can only be fixed metabolically by a group of prokaryotes known as diazotrophs?
• ...that in humans the balance between anabolism and catabolism of glucose is largely regulated by insulin?
• ...that hydrogen can be biologicaly produced by some algae with the enzyme hydrogenase?

Categories

Metabolism topics

Things you can do

There is still a lot of work to do on Wikipedia's metabolism articles.

Visit the Metabolic Pathways task force page to see what needs doing to the wide range of metabolism-related articles, images and templates. In particular the roadmap for article development may be of interest.

On the more general front, the Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject may also have projects of interest.

WikiProjects

This page is maintained by the Metabolic Pathways task force which is part of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject.

The Metabolic Pathways task force is related to the Cell Signaling Wikiproject.

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