• Folic acid is itself not biologically active until it has been converted into tetrahydrofolate via the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase in the liver. Therefore, folic acid is a precursor of tetrahydrofolate.
• In order to biosynthesize glycine, the amino acid serine is required, where the enzyme serine hydroxymethyltransf
erase catalyses the reaction between serine and tetrahydrofolate into glycine.
• The committed step for porphyrin biosynthesis (the prosthetic group that contains an iron atom contained in the center of a large heterocyclic organic ring) is the formation of D-aminolevulinic acid by the reaction of the amino acid glycine and succinyl-CoA, from the citric acid cycle. Therefore, glycine is a precursor of porphyrin.
[1] Folic Acid
Tetrahydrofolate
[2] Tetrahydrofolate
Glycine
[3] Glycine
Porphyrin
• In all, a lack of folic acid impairs hemoglobin synthesis.
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