Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Assimilation (biology) Assimilation is the process of absorption of vitamins, minerals, and other chemicals from food as part of the nutrition of an organism. In humans, this is always done with a chemical breakdown (enzymes and acids) and physical breakdown (oral mastication and stomach churning). Chemical alteration of substances in the ...
Biological carbon fixation, or сarbon assimilation, is the process by which living organisms convert inorganic carbon (particularly carbon dioxide) to organic compounds. These organic compounds are then used to store energy and as structures for other biomolecules. Carbon is primarily fixed through photosynthesis, but some organisms use ...
Nitrogen assimilation is the formation of organic nitrogen compounds like amino acids from inorganic nitrogen compounds present in the environment. Organisms like plants, fungi and certain bacteria that can fix nitrogen gas (N 2) depend on the ability to assimilate nitrate or ammonia for their needs. Other organisms, like animals, depend ...
Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food compounds into small water-soluble components so that they can be absorbed into the blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intestine into the blood stream. Digestion is a form of catabolism that is often divided into two processes based on ...
Anabolism (/ əˈnæbəlɪzəm /) is the set of metabolic pathways that construct macromolecules like DNA or RNA from smaller units. [1][2] These reactions require energy, known also as an endergonic process. [3] Anabolism is the building-up aspect of metabolism, whereas catabolism is the breaking-down aspect. Anabolism is usually synonymous ...
C4 carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960s discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack. [1] C 4 fixation is an addition to the ancestral and more common C 3 carbon fixation. The main carboxylating enzyme in C 3 ...
The important sulfur cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which the sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living systems. It is important in geology as it affects many minerals and in life because sulfur is an essential element (), being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. [1]
In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a linked series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell. The reactants, products, and intermediates of an enzymatic reaction are known as metabolites, which are modified by a sequence of chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. [1]: 26 In most cases of a metabolic pathway, the product of one enzyme ...