Welcome to class of
Principles of Biochemistry
Dr. Meera Kaur
What is Biochemistry?
• A scientific discipline
• Explains life at the molecular level
• Explains biological forms and
functions in chemical terms
• Forms basis for studying other fields
like cell biology, genetics, medicine,
nutrition, immunology etc.
• Closely relates to other discipline like
chemistry, physics, mathematics
Levels of organization in a living organism.
What is biomolecule?
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What are living organism made of ?
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How are they made ?
Biomolecules
• Living matters are made out of biomolecules
• Biomolecules are made of lighter elements
• They are mostly combined with covalent
bonding
• Biomolecules are compounds of carbon
• Biomolecules have functional groups
• Most biomolecules are asymmetric
Elements found in biological molecules
What are the major biomolecules?
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Carbohydrates
Protein
Lipids
Nucleic acds
Form of life
• Prokaryotes (bacteria,
archae)
• Unicellular
• No nucleus
• Lack internal membrane
systems
• Incapable of carring
complex reactions
• Eukaryotes (animal,
fungi)
• Multicellular/ unicellular
• Contain nucleus
• Have membranebounded cellular units
• Capable to perform
cpmplex biological
reactions
(photosyntesis, aerobic
metabolism etc.)
Representations of alanine
Representations of alanine
Structure of human endothelin
Illustration of entropy
How does evolution work?
Laboratory synthesis of biological molecules
Cyanobacteria
Prokaryotic cells
A eukaryotic cell
Evolutionary tree based on nucleotide sequences
Possible origin of eukaryotic cells