BCH 121: INTRODUCTORY BIOCHEMISTRY (2021/2022 & 2022/2023 ACADEMIC SESSIONS)

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF LAFIA

FACULTY OF SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY

SECOND SEMESTER

COURSE CODE: BCH 121

COURSE TITLE: INTRODUCTORY BIOCHEMISTRY
CREDIT UNITS: 2

LECTURER NOTE PREPARED BY

MR MOHAMMED ADEWUMI ABDULRASAK

2021/2022 & 2022/2023 ACADEMIC SESSIONS

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 BCH 121: INTRODUCTORY BIOCHEMISTRY (2021/2022 & 2022/2023 ACADEMIC SESSIONS)

Aspects of the course content covered

• Sources of carbon and energy for cellular life

• The carbon, oxygen and nitrogen cycles
• The flow of energy in the biosphere
• Significance and relationship of biochemistry to the other life sciences

Learning objectives

By the end of the class, the learners would be able to:

I. Identify the two main sources of energy to living organisms

II. Classify organisms based on energy source, carbon source, and both

III. Explain the classes of organisms based on the source of carbon and energy

IV. Mention at least an example chemoautotrophs, chemoheterotrophs, photoautotrophs, and

photoheterotrophs

V. Describe the carbon, oxygen and water cycles

VI. Describe the nitrogen cycle

VII. Explain the flow of energy in the biosphere

VIII. Define metabolism

IX. Mention the two broad classification of metabolism

X. Explain (i) catabolism (ii) anabolism

XI. Compare and contrast between catabolism and anabolism

XII. List and explain three strategies for the regulation and control of metabolic pathways in the
cell.

XIII. Mention at least five landmark development in the field of life sciences brought about by
the understanding of biochemistry.

XIV. Explain the significance and relationship of biochemistry in medicine, agriculture and other
fields of life sciences.
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XV. List five notable biochemist that are Nobel winners.

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SOURCES OF CARBON AND ENERGY FOR CELLULAR LIFE

Figure 1: All organisms can be classified according to their source of energy (sunlight or oxidizable
chemical compounds) and their source of carbon for the synthesis of cellular material.

Welcome to the world of metabolism, the heartbeat of Biochemistry.

Metabolism entails all the coordinated cellular activities (biochemical reactions) involving numerous
multienzyme systems (in metabolic pathways) cooperating to:
(1) Obtain chemical energy by capturing solar energy or degrading energy-rich nutrients from the
environment;
(2) convert nutrient molecules into the cell’s own characteristic molecules, including precursors of
macromolecules;
(3) polymerize monomeric precursors into macromolecules: proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides;
and
(4) synthesize and degrade biomolecules required for specialized cellular functions, such as membrane
lipids, intracellular messengers, and pigments.

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THE CARBON, OXYGEN AND WATER CYCLE

In our biosphere, carbon, oxygen, and water are constantly cycled between the heterotrophic and
autotrophic worlds, with solar energy as the driving force for this global process

Figure 2: Cycling of carbon dioxide and oxygen between the autotrophic (photosynthetic) and
heterotrophic domains in the biosphere.

THE NITROGEN CYCLE

Living organisms also require a source of nitrogen for the synthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, and
other compounds.
The cyanobacteria and many species of soil bacteria that live symbiotically on the roots of some
plants—are capable of converting (“fixing”) atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into ammonia

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Figure 3: Cycling of nitrogen in the biosphere

The cycling of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, which ultimately involves all species, depends on a
proper balance between the activities of the producers (autotrophs) and consumers (heterotrophs)
in our biosphere.

THE FLOW OF ENERGY IN THE BIOSPHERE

The cycling of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen are driven by an enormous flow of energy into and
through the biosphere, to commence photosynthetic organisms captures of solar energy and use it
to generate energy-rich carbohydrates and other organic nutrients, which subsequently then used
as source of energy by heterotrophic organisms.
In metabolic processes, and in all energy transformations, there is a loss of useful energy (free
energy) and an inevitable increase in the amount of unusable energy (heat and entropy).
Unlike the cyclic flow of matter, energy flows one way through the biosphere.
In essence, organisms cannot regenerate useful energy from energy dissipated as heat and
entropy.

METABOLISM
Metabolism is the overall process through which living systems acquire and utilize the free energy
they need to carry out their various functions.
They do so by coupling the exergonic reactions of nutrient oxidation to the endergonic
processes required to maintain the living state such as the performance of mechanical work, the
active transport of molecules against concentration gradients, and the biosynthesis of complex
molecules.

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Metabolism is the sum of all the chemical transformations (reactions) taking place in a cell or
organism, occurring through a series of consecutive enzyme-catalyzed reactions that constitute
metabolic pathways.
Metabolic pathways are series of consecutive enzymatic reactions that produce specific products
The precursor in a metabolic pathway is converted into a product through a series of metabolic
intermediates are all called metabolites.

What is intermediary metabolism?

Metabolism = catabolism + anabolism

Catabolism is the degradation (breakdown) of organic nutrient molecules (carbohydrates, fats,

and proteins) into smaller, simpler end products (such as lactic acid, CO2, and NH3). Catabolic
pathways release energy, which is conserved in the formation of ATP and reduced electron carriers
(NADH, NADPH, and FADH2), while the rest is lost as heat.

Figure 4: Overview of catabolism

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Anabolism, also called biosynthesis, makes use of small, simple precursors to build up larger and
more complex molecules, such as, lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids. Anabolic
reactions require an input of energy, generally in the form of the phosphoryl group transfer
potential of ATP and the reducing power of NADH, NADPH, and FADH2

Figure 5: Energy relationships between catabolic and anabolic pathways.

Metabolic pathways could be linear, branched or cyclic.

Describe an example each for linear, branched and cyclic metabolic pathways?

Generally, catabolic pathways are convergent and anabolic pathways divergent

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Figure 5: Three types of nonlinear metabolic pathways

To avoid wastefulness the catabolic and anabolic pathways of various categories of biomolecules
are reciprocally regulated by not allowing both pathways reaction sequences to occur
simultaneously.

Imagine, what could occur if both degradation and biosynthesis is occurring simultaneous!

The enzymes involved in the catabolic and anabolic reactions between two points of biomolecules
are not exactly alike; at least one reaction step would be catalysed by different
thermodynamically favourable enzymes in the catabolic and anabolic directions. For example,
Glycolytic and gluconeogenesis pathways (glucose to pyruvate, and pyruvate to glucose).
This makes anabolism and catabolism to be essentially irreversible.
As a further contribution to the separate regulation of catabolic and anabolic reaction sequences,
paired catabolic and anabolic pathways commonly take place in different cellular compartments:
for example, fatty acid catabolism in mitochondria, fatty acid synthesis in the cytosol.

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Metabolic pathways regulation and controls

1. Availability of substrate: when the intracellular concentration of an enzyme’s substrate is near or

below Km (as is commonly the case), the rate of the reaction depends strongly on substrate
concentration
2. Allosteric regulation: this is by a metabolic intermediate or coenzyme—an amino acid or ATP, for
example—that signals the cell’s internal metabolic state.
3. Hormonal regulation: In multicellular organisms, the metabolic activities of different tissues are
regulated and integrated by growth factors and hormones that act from outside the cell.

Note:

In some cases, this regulation occurs virtually instantaneously (sometimes in less than a
millisecond) through changes in the levels of intracellular messengers that modify the activity of
existing enzyme molecules by allosteric mechanisms or by covalent modification such as
phosphorylation.
In other cases, the extracellular signal changes the cellular concentration of an enzyme by
altering the rate of its synthesis or degradation, so the effect is seen only after minutes or
hours.

In summary, Metabolism enables living organisms to achieve the dynamic steady state of life. It provides
fascinating and revealing insights into life, with countless applications in medicine, agriculture, and
biotechnology.

SIGNIFICANCE AND RELATIONSHIPS OF BIOCHEMISTRY TO OTHER LIFE SCIENCES

Write on the significance and relationship of biochemistry to other fields of life sciences?
Biochemistry is perhaps the most rapidly developing discipline in medicine. No wonder, the major share of
Nobel prizes in medicine has gone to research workers engaged in biochemistry. This years (2023) Nobel
in medicine or physiology was awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weisssman for their discoveries
concerning nucleoside base modifications that facilitated the development of effective mRNA vaccines
against COVID-19. Thanks to the advent of DNA recombinant technology, genes can now be transferred
from one person to another, so that many of the genetically determined diseases are now amenable to
gene therapy. Many genes, (e.g. human insulin gene) have already been transferred to microorganisms for
large scale production of human insulin. Advances in genomics like RNA interference for silencing of genes
and creation of transgenic animals by gene targeting of embryonic stem cells are opening up new vistas in
therapy of diseases like cancer and AIDS. Recently, the development of CRISPR-cas system for gene
editing has also opened the frontier of application of this tool in medicine and agriculture. Emmanuelle
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Chapentier and Jennifer Doudna won the 2020 noble prize for their work on CRISPR-cas system. It is
hoped that in future, the physician will be able to treat the patient, understanding his genetic basis, so that
very efficient "designer medicine" could cure the diseases. The large amount of data, especially with
regard to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are available, could be harnessed by
"Bioinformatics". Computers are already helping in drug designing process. Studies on oncogenes have
identified molecular mechanisms of control of normal and abnormal cells. Medical practice is now
depending more on the science of Medical Biochemistry. With the help of Human genome project (HGP)
the sequences of whole human genes are now available; it has already made great impact on medicine
and related health sciences.

The application of the understanding of biochemistry and the tools developed are not limited to medicine,
but rather to every aspect of life sciences. The application of biochemistry to agriculture, have improved
food security. Better plants cultivation through genetic engineering have giving rise to disease and drought
resistant crops, with better fruiting and short maturity period. A variety of genetically modified crops are
been grown with improved yield. Also, in animal husbandry, better breeds of desired economical traits
are reared.

Science is not an independent affair. The field of biochemistry, have enormously contributed to our
knowledge and understanding of genetics, developmental biology, microbiology, anatomy, physiology,
entomology, zoology, agricultural sciences and life sciences as a whole.

Table 1: Some milestone in the History of Biochemistry

Scientist Year Landmark discoveries

Rouelle 1773 isolated urea from urine
Lavoisier 1785 oxidation of food stuffs
Wohler 1828 synthesis of urea
Berzelius 1835 enzyme catalysis theory
Louis Pasteur 1860 fermentation process
Edward Buchner 1897 extracted enzymes
Fiske and Subbarao 1926 isolated ATP from muscle
Lohmann 1932 creatinine phosphate
Hans Krebs 1937 citric acid cycle
Avery and Macleod 1944 DNA is genetic material
Lehninger 1950 TCA cycle in mitochondria
Watson and Crick 1953 structure of DNA
Nirenberg 1961 genetic code in mRNA
Holley 1963 sequenced gene for tRNA
Khorana 1965 synthesized the gene
Paul Berg 1972 recombinant DNA technology
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, and
Jack W. Szostak 1984 telomerase
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Kary Mullis 1985polymerase chain reaction

1990human genome project started
2000Draft of human genome
2003human genome project completed
nucleoside base modifications
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weisssman 2005 (mRNA vaccine)
ENCODE 2012 Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements
1951,
Frederick Sanger 1952 sequenced insulin B and A chains
Emmanuelle Chapentier and Jennifer Doudna CRISPR-Cas9 system for gene editing

References for further reading

Donald Voet and Judith G. Voet (2011). Biochemistry (Fouth edition). John Wiley & sons , inc.

Nelson D.L. and Cox M.M. (2013). Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry (sixth edition). W. H. Freeman and
Company. New York.

Vasudevan D.M., Sreekumari S., Vaidyanathan K. (2013). Textbook of Biochemistry for Medical Students
(Seventh Edition). Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd. New Delhi.

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