Educator

An Overview of Metabolism

• Hundreds of enzymes catalyze an array of metabolic reactions. Luckily, we don’t have to know all of the reactions to understand metabolism. We just need to master the underlying strategies.

• For example, all organisms need a source of energy and raw materials. Different metabolic strategies have evolved to obtain these resources. We’ll learn how to recognize and classify organisms based on these traits.

• All metabolic pathways must be regulated to avoid wasting energy and other precious resources. This also requires that biosynthetic and degradative pathways be independently controlled. Control can occur only when the reactions have large, negative free energy changes.