Metabolism pathways

[deleted647690]

The biochemistry course I took only covered up through enzyme kinetics, and a little bit of carbohydrate structure. I do not know anything about metabolic processes or pathways. I just started the lipids chapter in my Berkeley Review book, and there are figures with long pathways (formation of fatty acid derivatives, formation of fatty acid triglycerides). How do I study these? Do I memorize these pathways?
It says, "if you have a good understanding of the general principles and concepts of the processes shown here, then you'll be able to work your way through their passages and questions."

I'm not really sure what to study for it. I'm completely unfamiliar with these pathways, and it just looks like a jumble of foreign structures and letters. I feel like someone who has no science background looking at an orgo reaction.

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[theonlytycrane]

You can self-study with the Kaplan biochemistry book or take a course on metabolism. Khan Academy also has video resources. I'm also offering a free walkthrough of all the important pathways for the MCAT starting in August. PM me in you're interested.

 

[LIC2015]

There's an app called MCAT Mastery that has excellent flashcards for aerobic and anaerobic respiration. The questions are very detailed so it's a great way to drill terminology and reactions. Unfortunately, much of the biochem is pure memorization, so keep drilling the terms and reaction steps in processes such as gluconeogenesis, pentose phosphate pathway, krebs, etc. For example, one of the AAMC section bank questions asked for the structure of Succinyl-CoA, which is an intermediate product of Krebs. You're not going to be able to derive the structure of the molecule by its name, so you have to memorize it.

 

[wizzed101]

Well. Why don't you just do the obvious: read the textbook!

Kaplan and what not offer review materials. But if you haven't learned yet, what is there to review?

 

[majikarp]

If you don't know by now, metabolism is super high yield on this new MCAT.

In order of priority, I'd say the things to know for metabolism are:
1) Know word roots of main enzymes such as: kinases, oxidoreductases, phosphatases, decarboxylases, etc
2) Know the macro level perspective of metabolism as a whole: catabolism vs. anabolism, glycolysis, pdc, krebs, etc, gluconeogenesis, glycolgenesis, glycogenolysis, lipid synthesis, beta oxidation, protein breakdown, ketosis etc
3) Know the cell areas that each part of metabolism occurs in
4) Energy accounting: what are the main energy molecules? How many ATP do they produce each? What parts of metabolism produce how much energy molecules? Which metabolism process is most energy efficient? Why do our bodies use both glucose and lipid metabolism?
5) Going back to #1, know key examples of each enzyme type especially rate limiting steps and their areas in the cell (cytoplasm vs. mitochondrial matrix)

Hope that helps!