Glutamate and Glutamine Metabolism: Glutamate and Glutamine are nutritionally non-essential amino acids that are the building block of proteins and, the precursor for the synthesis of other nonessential amino acids, urea, and neurotransmitters. Glutamine also serves as a co-substrate for the formation of asparagine. The glutamate and glutamine synthesis reaction uniquely incorporates free ammonium ions and is important for ammonia metabolism and detoxification. The metabolic pathway for the synthesis of glutamate and glutamine involves : i) Conversion of alpha-ketoglutarate to glutamate by enzyme glutamate dehydrogenase, an NADPH requiring an enzyme that incorporates free ammonia into alpha-keto-glutarate. ii) Conversion of glutamate to glutamine is catalyzed by Glutamine synthetase which incorporates ammonium ion and utilizes ATP as energy. Metabolism of Glutamine and Glutamine Fates of Glutamate Metabolism of Serine and Glycine Overvie...