Skip to content
DraconiticBiochemistryBiomolecules · Catabolism · Biosynthesis · Metabolism
Data

Field guide

Read the network before tracing the line: carbon exchange, energy conversion, lipid and amino-acid chemistry, nucleotide economy, cofactors, and the mechanistic scale revealed by oxalosuccinate.

All chapters

Guide chapters
1
Metabolic domains
12
Pathway districts
58
Map edition
human-metabolism-r97-expanded-20261025, 2,039 events
REACTION CHEMISTRY

Cofactors as recurring chemical strategies

Vitamin-derived cofactors are best understood by the difficult chemistry they enable across otherwise distant pathways.

Two-dimensional structure of a representative NAD cofactorNicotinamidehydride / electron transfer
Two-dimensional structure of thiamine diphosphateThiamine diphosphatecarbon-fragment stabilization
Two-dimensional structure of pyridoxal phosphatePyridoxal phosphateamino-acid chemistry
Cofactors are shown as recurring chemical strategies, with full structures and the transfer each system enables.

Thiamin diphosphate stabilizes carbon-centered intermediates in oxidative decarboxylation and carbon-transfer reactions. Flavin and nicotinamide cofactors carry electrons through different molecular mechanisms. Coenzyme A activates and transfers acyl groups, while biotin carries activated carbon dioxide in carboxylation reactions.

Pyridoxal phosphate reorganizes amino-acid bonds through a covalent enzyme-bound intermediate. Tetrahydrofolate carries one-carbon units at several oxidation states, and cobalamin supports radical rearrangement or methyl-transfer chemistry that would be difficult by ordinary ionic mechanisms.

The Cofactor Lens searches the release-pinned atlas reaction inventory for these molecular forms and their synonyms. Its count describes coverage in this release—not dietary requirement, nutritional status or a claim that every cofactor-dependent human reaction is represented.

Ideas to carry into the map

  1. Cofactors solve recurring chemical problems.
  2. The active cofactor differs from its dietary precursor.
  3. A cofactor family can connect distant pathway territories.
  4. Coverage counts are not nutritional measurements.

Pathways in this field note

All guide chapters