Glucose, fatty acids and amino acids each get a destinations table and a note on impossible conversions in this macronutrient fate summary for NS230 Unit 2. Searches like "ns 230 unit 2 assignment example", "ns230 unit 2 sample" and "ns230 unit 2 example" land here.
What a finished NS230 Unit 2 macronutrient fate summary looks like
Three parallel sections carry the summary, one per fuel, each ending in a small destinations table. Glucose is followed to liver and muscle glycogen, to oxidation through pyruvate and the citric acid cycle, and to fatty acid synthesis when intake exceeds storage. Fatty acids are followed to re-esterification in adipose, to hepatic packaging into VLDL, and to beta-oxidation in muscle and liver, with ketone bodies noted as a liver product during a long fast. Amino acids are followed to new protein, to transamination, and to carbon skeletons that enter gluconeogenesis or the citric acid cycle once their nitrogen is removed. The sharpest paragraph sits after the three sections. It explains why even-chain fatty acids cannot supply net glucose: pyruvate dehydrogenase runs one way, so acetyl-CoA never becomes pyruvate again.
How a NS230 Unit 2 example is structured
The summary usually opens with a sentence per fuel naming its absorbed form and the route it takes into circulation, which fixes the starting line for everything after. The three sections then share one internal order: first tissue, storage form, oxidation route, conversions available, conversions impossible. Keeping the order identical lets a grader compare fuels across the page without rereading. Each destinations table has the same four columns, destination, tissue, key enzyme, conditions, so glycogen synthase in liver and muscle sits in the same slot as lipoprotein lipase in adipose. The one-way paragraph follows the tables and names glycerol and odd-chain fatty acids as the small exceptions. A closing paragraph states which fuel the body can store in quantity, which in limited amounts, and which not at all. Sources cited are typically the course text plus one biochemistry reference.
A fixed order for every fuel
First tissue, storage, oxidation, conversions allowed, conversions ruled out. The repetition is deliberate; it makes a missing destination visible at a glance.
Glycogen before lipogenesis
Glucose is shown filling liver and muscle glycogen and raising its own oxidation before any meaningful share turns to fatty acid synthesis, with the conditions for that shift stated.
Nitrogen off, skeleton onward
Amino acids reach the citric acid cycle or gluconeogenesis only after transamination strips the amino group, and the summary keeps the two events in that order.
The irreversible step
Pyruvate dehydrogenase is named as the reason acetyl-CoA from fat cannot return to glucose, with the glycerol backbone and odd-chain fatty acids noted as the exceptions.
Storage capacity compared
Fat is stored in large amounts, glycogen in hundreds of grams, protein not at all as a reserve. The closing paragraph sets the three side by side.
Where marks go in NS230 Unit 2
The costliest error is a summary that ends at absorption, so the fuels arrive in the blood and the paper stops, which answers the digestion question from an earlier course rather than this one. Missing conditions come next: glucose said to become fat with no mention of glycogen filling first, or amino acids said to become glucose with no word about removing the amino group. Stating that fat can be converted to glucose, without the glycerol exception or the pyruvate dehydrogenase reason, loses accuracy points in most sections and is the unit's classic mistake. Protein treated as a storage fuel draws a comment, since the body keeps no reserve of it. Tables whose columns change between fuels lose the comparison the layout was built for. Unnamed tissues cost marks throughout, because NS230 grades where as heavily as what.
Get a NS230 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Tell us which foods or which fuel your Unit 2 prompt emphasizes, and paste in its instructions and grading criteria. The summary is built fuel by fuel in the same destination-first layout, tables included where your section expects them. It reaches you inside 24-48h, and you pay nothing for the first.
NS230 Unit 2 questions, answered
How much detail does each pathway need here?
Less than later units will ask for. The fate summary names each destination, the tissue, and the one enzyme that marks the route, glycogen synthase, lipoprotein lipase, an aminotransferase, without walking every step. Later units in many sections take single pathways apart in detail, so a fate summary that tries to do their job runs long and loses its comparison.
Can fatty acids really never become glucose?
Not in net terms for the even-chain fatty acids that dominate the diet. Their carbons enter the citric acid cycle as acetyl-CoA, and two carbons leave as carbon dioxide on each turn, so nothing is left over to build glucose. The glycerol backbone of a triglyceride can become glucose, and odd-chain fatty acids contribute a small amount through propionyl-CoA.
Should ketone bodies appear in a fate summary?
Briefly, as a fate of fatty acids in the liver when carbohydrate is scarce. One or two sentences naming their production in liver mitochondria and their use by muscle, heart and, after some days of fasting, the brain are usually enough. The detailed regulation belongs to later units on fasting, and your summary can say so rather than borrowing it early.