Alpha-ketoglutarate is another name for 2-Oxoglutarate, a five-carbon dicarboxylate containing a ketone adjacent to a carboxylate group. The names describe the same carbon skeleton using two positional naming conventions.
Alpha-ketoglutarate links the citric acid cycle with amino acid metabolism: transamination interconverts its carbon skeleton with that of glutamic acid. Its oxidative decarboxylation yields succinyl-CoA and carbon dioxide.[ref]
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