Protein metabolism

Protein metabolism denotes the various biochemical processes responsible for the synthesis of proteins and amino acids, and the breakdown of proteins (and other large molecules, too) by catabolism.

Protein synthesis

Main article: Protein biosynthesis.

Protein biosynthesis relies on four processes;

• amino acid synthesis
• RNA synthesis
• transcription
• translation

Protein anabolism is the process by which protein are formed from amino acids (aka anabolic amino acid synthesis).

Protein breakdown

Further information: Proteolysis

Protein catabolism is the process by which proteins are broken down to their amino acids. This is also called proteolysis.

This can be followed by further amino acid degradation.