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Coursera

Amino Acid Metabolism

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Overview

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Amino acid metabolism covers how the body builds, breaks down, and recycles the building blocks of protein, along with the nitrogen they carry. This course works through the synthesis of each amino acid family – serine, cysteine, aspartate and asparagine, the methionine-threonine-lysine group, the branched-chain amino acids, and the aromatic amino acids including tryptophan and phenylalanine – and the diseases that result when specific enzymes in these pathways are deficient. You'll then cover amino acid catabolism, the central role of glutamate, and the urea cycle, including how nitrogen is safely excreted and what happens when urea cycle enzymes are deficient. The course closes with heme metabolism and iron homeostasis, and bilirubin metabolism, including the enterohepatic circulation that explains jaundice and its causes.

Syllabus

  • Amino Acid Metabolism: Synthesis and Families
    • This module surveys how amino acids are classified and biosynthesized by family, from the glutamate and aspartate families to the aromatic and branched-chain amino acids, and covers the inborn errors of metabolism, such as PKU and homocystinuria, that arise when these pathways are disrupted.
  • Amino Acid Catabolism, Nitrogen Metabolism, and the Urea Cycle
    • This module covers how amino acid catabolism generates nitrogen waste, the step-by-step enzymology of the urea cycle that detoxifies it, the disorders that result when that cycle fails, and the biology of reactive nitrogen compounds such as nitrites and nitrosamines.
  • Heme Metabolism and Iron Homeostasis
    • This module covers the structure and synthesis of heme, the porphyrias that arise from disrupted heme synthesis, and the molecular mechanisms, including IRE/IRE-BP regulation, that maintain iron homeostasis in the body.
  • Hemoglobin and Oxygen Supply
    • This module examines how hemoglobin's structure and cooperative oxygen binding differ from myoglobin's, how factors such as the Bohr effect, 2,3-BPG, and carbon dioxide shift its oxygen affinity, and how hemoglobin variants affect oxygen transport.
  • Bilirubin Metabolism
    • This module traces bilirubin from its formation through heme breakdown, through hepatic conjugation, to its enterohepatic circulation and the clinical presentation of jaundice.

Taught by

Kevin Ahern, PhD

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