Urea cycle?

[purplemermaid]

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Quick question, I was just wondering if you guys would suggest studying the urea cycle for the new MCAT? I'm going through the old TBR, and it includes it, but it's not explicitly on the AAMC outline. Thoughts?

 

[theonlytycrane]

At a minimum I would make sure you know the structure of urea, know that nitrogen is toxic, and know that there's a pathway to pack up nitrogen into a waste molecule (urea) for filtration (kidney) and excretion.

Generally having an idea of the concept helps to approach a passage if one comes up.

 

[aldol16]

Understand at least what it does (overall purpose) and be able to tell that a molecule is a urea cycle intermediate if given a name or structure. You shouldn't go too much into detail because it's low yield.