The Application of Metabolic Pathways on Biotechnology
The World of Metabolic Pathways
Background Information: What is Metabolism?
The body’s metabolism can be defined as a biochemical process essential to many vital components required to sustain life in not only human beings, but living organisms as a whole. The concept “metabolism” can be divided into two basic categories: anabolic and catabolic.
Catabolism: In simple terms, it is known as the breakdown of molecules. This process will release energy as the molecules break apart.
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Oxidation
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Digesting Food
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Breaking down stored fats
Anabolism: In simple terms, in is known as the “building” or synthesis of molecules. This process, on the other hand, requires energy in order to build these molecules.
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Synthesizing protein
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Replicating DNA
The Roadways of the Body: Metabolic Pathways
In order to understand how metabolic pathways function within the body, it is better to first see a simplified diagram of the process.
The process that occurs not only within the metabolism but in its pathways as well, can best be classifed and labeled by the "lock and key" method. This method is highly specific and only functions at the proper level when the enzyme (as exhibited in the diagram above) is bound correctly to its substrate.
Metabolic pathways are a continous series of chemical and enzymatic reactions that occur within the body to produce specific products. These pathways follow four basic characteristics:
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They are irreversible.
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All pathways withhold the first committed step.
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They are regulated.
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They are located within specific cellular locations in the Eurkaryotic cell.
Pathways are also quite diverse when it comes to meeting the needs of various organisms. That being said, the diagram below contains the most important metabolisms within human beings. Each metabolic branch holds the crucial pathways that allow the human body to sustain vitality.
Here are the most important pathways that function within us. Click on the links in order to learn more about these pathways!
What is the Application of this Information?
How exactly is this information relevant to today's society? It is true that upon first glance the information discussed serves little to no purpose unless you are in the biological field. However, without this knowledged, many of our present day commodities would fail to exist!
1. Herbicides - Herbicides are a group of products that were invented with the knowledge of these metabolic pathways in hand. Recollect every time you saw your parents spray their plants with a bottle of chemicals, or every time you saw a small duster plane soar over a field of crops spraying some sort of liquid as it flew. This was all made possible with the knowledge of these pathways at hand.
2. Insecticides - When you see a cockroach in your room, what is your first action if you have not already killed it or thrown it out? It is to pull out a can of bug spray and to coat it with the liquid till your satisfied that it died. These insecticides were created with the insight of pathways. And not only have they been used to just destroy nuisances, they were utilized in getting rid of diseases such as malaria.
3. Biological Wafare - Who would have guessed that a few measly pathways found within the body with serve as an explosive tool in the combat of war? Well certainly not the scientists who discovered them as they witnessed their use in World War II and the Vietnam War.
4. Pharmaceuticals - Did you know that every medicine you've ever taken in your entire existance was designed with the knowledge of these metabolic pathways? Without the use of the pathways discovered, scientists wosuld not be able determine which enzymes and protein to inhibit or increase to create an efficient treatment for a disease such as Parkinson's or HIV.
5. Drugs - To get our bodies to experience the euphoria known as a "high", drugs such as Cocaine, Meth, and Alcohol are designed based on the understanding of these pathways (and the pathways of the brain) in order to manipulate the highly specific "lock and key" process.