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ENADE Veterinary Biochemistry: practice questions

ENADE: Medicina Veterinária · Brazil · INEP

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
67written to this exam in this subject
12syllabus units

What this subject covers

Biomolecules, enzymes and the metabolic pathways that turn feed into energy, milk, meat and eggs, including the ruminant's special dependence on volatile fatty acids and gluconeogenesis.

In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF core group 08; ICAR AIEEA-PG 12 (Veterinary Biochemistry); China basic paper 12

Where the 67 questions fall

How our questions for ENADE spread across the units of Veterinary Biochemistry. Difficulty: 36 easy, 31 medium, 0 hard.

Biochemical laboratory techniques12
Minerals: biochemical roles8
Enzymes and enzyme kinetics7
Ruminant metabolism: volatile fatty acids, gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis6
Protein and amino-acid metabolism5
Nucleic acids5
Vitamins: biochemical roles5
Biomolecules and their interactions4
Carbohydrate metabolism4
Lipid metabolism4
Hormones4
Cell signalling3

10 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · Biomolecules and their interactions · easy

Lactose, the sugar of milk, is made of which two monosaccharides?

  1. Glucose and fructose
  2. Galactose and glucose
  3. Glucose and glucose
  4. Galactose and fructose
Answer and working

B. Galactose and glucose

Lactose is galactose beta-1,4 glucose. Glucose plus fructose is sucrose, and two glucose units form maltose.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

2 · Enzymes and enzyme kinetics · medium

In a Lineweaver-Burk plot, lines for an enzyme with and without a competitive inhibitor:

  1. intersect on the x-axis
  2. are parallel
  3. intersect in the first quadrant
  4. intersect on the y-axis
Answer and working

D. intersect on the y-axis

Competitive inhibitors leave Vmax (and so 1/Vmax, the y-intercept) unchanged while increasing the slope. Intersection on the x-axis is the pure non-competitive pattern; parallel lines indicate uncompetitive inhibition.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

3 · Carbohydrate metabolism · easy

Which enzyme is the main rate-controlling step of glycolysis?

  1. Aldolase
  2. Phosphoglucose isomerase
  3. Phosphofructokinase-1
  4. Enolase
Answer and working

C. Phosphofructokinase-1

PFK-1 catalyses an irreversible step and is allosterically activated by AMP and fructose-2,6-bisphosphate and inhibited by ATP and citrate. Aldolase, isomerase and enolase catalyse near-equilibrium steps.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

4 · Protein and amino-acid metabolism · easy

Birds excrete most of their waste nitrogen as:

  1. urea
  2. ammonia
  3. creatinine
  4. uric acid
Answer and working

D. uric acid

Birds are uricotelic: they lack a functional hepatic urea cycle and make uric acid via purine synthesis, which is why arginine is essential in their diet. Mammals are ureotelic; many aquatic animals are ammonotelic.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

5 · Nucleic acids · easy

Which enzyme converts hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid?

  1. Uricase
  2. Xanthine oxidase
  3. Adenosine deaminase
  4. Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase
Answer and working

B. Xanthine oxidase

Xanthine oxidase, a molybdenum enzyme inhibited by allopurinol, makes uric acid. Uricase oxidises uric acid to allantoin; HGPRT salvages purine bases.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

6 · Vitamins: biochemical roles · easy

Thiamine pyrophosphate is the coenzyme of which enzyme?

  1. Transketolase
  2. Alanine aminotransferase
  3. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase
  4. Methylmalonyl-CoA mutase
Answer and working

A. Transketolase

TPP serves transketolase, pyruvate dehydrogenase and alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase. ALT uses pyridoxal phosphate, acetyl-CoA carboxylase uses biotin, and the mutase uses vitamin B12.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

7 · Hormones · medium

Which of the following is a direct metabolic effect of insulin?

  1. Stimulation of hepatic gluconeogenesis
  2. Stimulation of ketogenesis
  3. Inhibition of lipolysis
  4. Activation of glycogen phosphorylase
Answer and working

C. Inhibition of lipolysis

Insulin is the hormone of the fed state: it inhibits lipolysis, gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis and promotes glycogen synthesis. The other three are effects of glucagon and catecholamines.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

8 · Ruminant metabolism: volatile fatty acids, gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis · medium

Why do ruminants develop fatty liver more readily than many simple-stomached species when NEFA flow to the liver is high?

  1. Their liver cannot esterify fatty acids
  2. They lack hormone-sensitive lipase
  3. Their liver exports triacylglycerol as VLDL slowly
  4. Their liver oxidises fatty acids faster than other species
Answer and working

C. Their liver exports triacylglycerol as VLDL slowly

Re-esterified triacylglycerol accumulates in hepatocytes when uptake exceeds export, and ruminant hepatic VLDL secretion is low. The liver esterifies readily; that is the source of the fat.

Further reading: Kaneko JJ, Harvey JW, Bruss ML (eds), Clinical Biochemistry of Domestic Animals, 6th ed.

9 · Biochemical laboratory techniques · easy

Which tube is preferred when glucose measurement must be delayed?

  1. Sodium fluoride-potassium oxalate
  2. Plain tube left unseparated at room temperature
  3. Lithium heparin left on the clot
  4. Sodium citrate
Answer and working

A. Sodium fluoride-potassium oxalate

Fluoride inhibits enolase, stopping glycolysis by blood cells that would otherwise lower glucose. Unseparated plain or heparinised samples lose glucose with time; citrate is for coagulation tests.

Further reading: Stockham SL, Scott MA, Fundamentals of Veterinary Clinical Pathology, 2nd ed.

10 · Biochemical laboratory techniques · medium

Blood urea nitrogen is reported as 28 mg/dL. What is the urea concentration in mmol/L (urea contains two nitrogen atoms; 28 g of N per mole of urea)?

  1. 4.7 mmol/L
  2. 20 mmol/L
  3. 1 mmol/L
  4. 10 mmol/L
Answer and working

D. 10 mmol/L

28 mg/dL = 280 mg N/L; each mmol of urea has 28 mg of N, so 280/28 = 10 mmol/L. Dividing by 60 (molar mass of urea) gives 4.7, a wrong basis because the value is urea nitrogen; 20 divides by 14, counting only one nitrogen; 1 forgets the dL-to-L factor.

Further reading: Nelson DL, Cox MM, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 8th ed.

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Read the subject

Veterinary BiochemistryThe full study manual, free ENADEFormat, sections and how it has changed

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Veterinary Biochemistry for other exams

BCSE · USA / CanadaNational Veterinary Examination · JapanASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO · IndiaNational Practising Veterinarian Qualification Examination · ChinaNational Licensure Examination for Veterinarians · NepalVeterinarian Licensure Examination · PhilippinesICAR AIEEA · IndiaICAR AICE-JRF/SRF · India

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