Biochem 485 Fall 2015
Some advice about studying for the final going forward.
General- I advocate rewriting notes as a useful exercise. If you have not been doing this until now, it is
not too late to start. Break things down into units (i.e. glycogen synthesis, or glycogen regulation) and
then rewrite your notes in your own terms. Use the book as a resource to check and see if you are
getting things right. After you have done this, go back and rewrite your notes in outline form. Then go
back and rewrite your notes onto index cards, focusing on the specifics of the pathway.
Task: rewrite notes for a give unit
a- rewrite notes in your words
b- then rewrite them in outline form
c- reduce them to index cards
As you rewrite your notes, pay attention to the following items:
1- goals of a given pathway
2- carbon flow- intermediates
3- thermodynamics (what is the driving force for a reaction, is it reversible, how is ATP used, are there
any decarboxylation, hydrolysis, or otherwise strongly forward driven steps) . Is the pathway as a whole
reversible? What is the overall energy cost or gain from a pathway.
4- Regulation. What are the regulatory steps? Is regulation allosteric, hormonal, covalent (i.e.
phosphorylation), or controlled by enzyme levels and availability. Is there reciprocal regulation? End
product inhibition? Etc.
5- Unusual structural details (e.g. the structure of glycogen, or ubiquitinylation)
6- Organ compartmentalization- the role of the liver, or of adipocytes. How does muscle metabolism
differ? Where do pathways occur in the cell.
Specifics:
Use your own exams and quizzes to pinpoint areas of weakness. Pay special attention to those. Make
yourself a priority list of areas to study. Make decisions about where to put your time. Remember that
studying the material we are covering for exam 4 will benefit you for both the coming hour exam and
final, so do not sacrifice this material in covering the old material.
Looking back at material already covered in lecture:
Using exams and quizzes as a guide, prioritize which of these areas need the most time.
Photosynthesis- light reactions
Calvin cycle
Pentosphosphate pathway
Deriving oxidation state change looking at half reactions (i.e. how many e change in that reaction)
Glycogen breakdown
Glycogen synthesis
Signal transduction pathways (epinephrine, glucagon, insulin)
Fatty acid oxidation
Fatty acid synthesis
Sources of NADPH, CoA ester localization and transport, citric acid transport and utilization
Digestion of fats
Protein turnover (ubiquitinylation)
Protein digestion
Amino acid catalbolism
Glucogenic vs. ketogenic amino acids
Essential vs. nonessential amino acids
Amino acid synthesis and nitrogen fixation and incorporation into amino acids
Urea cycle, alanine-glucose cycle
Looking forward at material we have not yet been tested on (but have covered in lecture)
Purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis.
Unprecedented reactions in pyrimidine biosynthesis
Use of binding energy for catalysis
Regulation of purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis
Synthesis of DNA components (ribonucleotide reductase, thymidylate synthase)
Phospholipid biosynthesis
Ceramide biosynthesis
Steroid biosynthesis. Role of various steroid.