File:Urea_cycle.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
urea cycle
Sign in to saveAlso known as GO:0000050, ornithine cycle, urea biosynthetic process, urea biosynthesis
cycle of biochemical reactions producing urea
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- biological process
- Has part
- urea
- Named after
- Hans Krebs
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Urea cycle
- topic's main category
- Category:Urea cycle
- exact match
- purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GO_0000050
- different from
- tricarboxylic acid cycle
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The urea cycle (also known as the ornithine cycle) is a cycle of biochemical reactions that produces urea (NH2)2CO from ammonia (NH3). Animals that use this cycle, mainly amphibians and mammals, are called ureotelic.
The urea cycle converts highly toxic ammonia to urea for excretion. This cycle was the first metabolic cycle to be discovered by Hans Krebs and Kurt Henseleit in 1932, five years before the discovery of the TCA cycle. The urea cycle was described in more detail later on by Ratner and Cohen. The urea cycle takes place primarily in the liver and, to a lesser extent, in the kidneys.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “urea cycle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.