Question

The Krebs cycle is a circle. What do you think would happen if you removed one of the compounds from that circle to make an amino acid (this does happen, Alpha-ketogluterate is the basic building block for many amino acids)? The cell has a variety of other pathways that can make oxaloacetate (the final 4 carbon product in the krebs cycle) from other molecules in the cell. Why might these alternative pathways be important?

Answer 1

these alternative Pathways are important because of the multiple substrate and product reactions. When Alpha ketoglutarate is terminated due to the formation of amino acid then the availability of these molecules are reduces hands leads to reduction in the production of succinate. Less amount of succinate leads to less production of further molecules and ultimately oxaloacetate.

When an onother alternative is present in the mitochondrial matrix then we can recover or produce desired quantities of oxaloacetate and then continues the production of energy by proceeding krebs cycle.

so these alternative Pathways are helpful when a molecule of mid pathway is terminated for another process so that we can recover or continuous the cycle by obtaining desired molecule from other pathway.