Mechanistic Themes

• To join two groups together,

  1. use ATP to activate the first group (either phosphorylation or adenylation)
  2. use substitution to join them together

  (ex. urea cycle, I think also biotin ligase, stay tuned for nucleotide metabolism too!)
• with carbonyls, the alpha-carbons are acidic, making them a good location for deprotonation!
• synthetase = uses ATP

  synthase = does not use ATP