Lehninger’s Scheme and Conclusions Need to Be Defined More Exactly

In 1970, based on the data concerning decay of amino acids in vertebrates, the American biochemist Albert Lehninger made up a scheme for introducing carbon skeletons of amino acids into the Krebs cycle; amino acids being combined into seven groups. Since that time, his scheme has been used in different manuals and textbooks on biochemistry. However, we believe that some information which can be found in Lehninger’s scheme is obsolete. Moreover, Lehninger referred each amino acid to one of the seven groups which in our opinion is incorrect, as the animal organism is characterized by another transformation of some amino acids. As to the conclusions concerning the glucogenic and ketogenic actions of one or another amino acids, they do not fully correspond to his scheme. In the present review, the scheme of introducing aminoacids carbon skeletons into the Krebs cycle specified by the author on the basis of the latest data about aminoacid transformation is given, and a fully corresponding conclusion of glucogenic and ketogenic actions of one or another aminoacid is drawn.