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Folic acid deficiency, believed to be the most common vitamin deficiency, causes a type of anemia in which haemoglobin synthesis is impaired and erythrocytes do not mature properly. Explain the metabolic relationship between haemoglobin synthesis and folic acid deficiency.

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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 hydroxymethyltransferase 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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