Question

What happens to the excess amino acids in the human body?

Answer 1

Hint: When one has a protein-rich diet, the proteins from the diet are digested and it often results in the formation of amino acids in excess. For the safe excretion of these amino acids, the liver acts upon the amino acids in a process known as deamination. It results in the formation of ammonia. Since ammonia is highly toxic to the human body, it is rapidly converted into urea, which is then excreted safely.

Complete Step by Step Solution:
In human beings, when there is an excess protein consumption, the digestive system digests it and breaks it down into smaller usable compounds of amino acids. Now, in order to remove these excess amino acids, the liver undertakes the process of deamination which results in the removal of an amine group. After this, it is converted into ammonia. Ammonia is a toxic product of nitrogen metabolism which should be removed from our bodies. The urea cycle or ornithine cycle converts excess ammonia in our body into urea in the mitochondria sites of liver cells. The urea which is formed then enters the bloodstream gets filtered by the kidneys and is ultimately excreted in the form of urine.

In other words the deamination process allows the body to convert the excess amino acids into usable by-products. During this process, the amine group is reduced to ammonia by the addition of a hydrogen atom. Using the enzymes, ammonia is formed because it is relatively toxic to the human body, it is then converted to urea from the amino acids.

Note: The deamination process removes the amino group from the amino acid and converts it to ammonia. Since the bases cytosine, the adenine, and the guanine have amino groups as their constituents, they can also be deaminated. These deaminations can result in mutation in the DNA.