Amino acids converted

Question

is serine converted to oxalacetates?

If so how does it happen,

if not why not

Answer 1

Amino acid metabolism consists of a variety of biochemical reactions including amino acid catabolism, a process that serves vital functions in the cell by creating such things as metabolic fuels, urea excretion and synthesis of new proteins, necessary for cell survival. Catabolism of the amino acid carbon skeleton depends on the category the AA falls into which intern correlates to the routes of AA carbon skeleton metabolism and resulting metabolites. During protein catabolism AA undergo different biochemical reactions for different purposes. Catabolism of the carbon skeleton can be reused as part of carb or lipid metabolism or TCA cycle. Glucogenic AA which are metabolized to pyruvate (many fates) or metabolites of TCA cycle. Although serine is glucogenic it undergoes deamination reactions which releases and amino group as NH4+ and results in pyruvate. It does not involve the use of alpha keto acids needed. So serine is never converted to oxalocetate. However, when asparagine is deaminated to aspartate it could be converted to oxalocetate through. The transamination of aspartate results in oxalocetate as well. The catabolic pathway for asparagine and aspartate results from both deamination and transamination reactions to create oxaloacetate.