Question:easy
The urea cycle occurs in which of the following organs?
The urea cycle occurs in which of the following organs?
Show Hint
Think of the only organ with all five enzymes that detoxify ammonia.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Liver
- Intestine
- Brain
- Kidney
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
The body must remove the nitrogen that is released when amino acids are broken down, because free ammonia is neurotoxic. The biochemical machinery that performs this conversion of ammonia into urea is the urea cycle, and its five enzymes are co-expressed at high activity in only one tissue: the hepatocyte. Two reactions of the cycle run inside the liver mitochondrion and three run in the liver cytosol, after which urea travels in the blood to the kidney solely for filtration and excretion. The intestine and brain do not house the full pathway, and the kidney disposes of nitrogen mainly through glutamine metabolism rather than a complete urea cycle. Therefore the site of the urea cycle is the liver. $NH_3 \rightarrow urea$ happens in hepatocytes. \[\boxed{\text{Liver}}\]
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