Unit 3 Study Guide
Chapter 4
1. Know the 4 macromolecules, which ones are polymers, what their monomers are, and examples
of each.
2. What is it about carbon that makes it possible for it to make large, complex molecules?
3. What are hydrocarbons?
4. Know what isomers are and the three types
5. What are functional groups and why are they important? Know the seven functional groups
6. What is ATP?
Chapter 5
1. Know each of the macromolecules, what their polymers are called, and what monomers are
involved.
2. How are monosaccharides classified?
3. What are the three types of sugars?
4. What is a disaccharide?
5. Define glycosidic linkage
6. What are the roles of polysaccharides and what determines their structure and function?
7. Know what starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin are.
8. What makes starch different from cellulose?
9. What are lipids and why are they hydrophobic?
10. What are the three general types of lipids? Be able to describe each of these types of lipids
as well as their functions.
11. What is an ester linkage?
12. Be able to distinguish between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids
13. Know what the functions of proteins are (e.g. structural support, transport, etc)
14. Know that a functional protein is made of one or more polypeptides precisely twisted,
folded, and coiled into a unique shape
15. Be able to list and describe all four levels of protein structure. When appropriate, know the
bonds involved in that particular level of structure.
16. Be able to discuss sickle cell disease as an example of why protein structure is important for
function
a. Sickle cell disease is caused by a single amino acid substitution in the hemoglobin
protein
17. Know what denaturation is
18. What role do chaperonins play in protein folding?
19. Know the two types of nucleic acids
20. What are polynucleotides and nucleotides? What are the components of nucleotides?
21. Know the two families of nitrogenous bases and how they pair with each other in DNA and
RNA
22. Know that adjacent nucleotides are joined by covalent bonds that from between the –OH
group on the 3’ carbon of one nucleotide and the phosphate on the 5’ carbon on the next
and that it is these links that create a sugar-phosphate backbone
23. RNA molecules are usually single-stranded while DNA are double stranded, forming a
double-helix. In the DNA double helix, the strands are antiparallel.
24. In RNA, thymine is replaced with uracil
Chapter 6
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Know the four basic features that all cells have
Be able to contrast prokaryotes and eukaryotes
What is the plasma membrane?
Why is a large SA:Volume ratio important?
Know the functions and unique characteristics of all cellular organelles. It may be easier to
group them on basic function (ex: organelles that generate energy or are associated with
DNA)
6. Know the endosymbiont theory
Chapter 7
1. What is diffusion and what are the three ways that molecules are transported across the cell
membrane?
2. How would you build a cell membrane?
3. Why are proteins embedded in the cell membrane? What specific aspects of a protein allows
them to be integrated into the cell membrane structure?
4. Know how large molecules are moved and the three types of endocytosis
5. What is osmosis? What is tonicity?
6. Know the three different types of tonicity
7. How can water balance be regulated?
8. Know that the cell membrane is a collage of different proteins
9. Know the types of membrane proteins (peripheral, integral)
10. What roles do membrane carbohydrates play?
11. What cell functions do cell membranes participate in?
12. What is the fluid mosaic model?
13. Know that cell membranes are fluid
14. Why would cell membranes have an increase in unsaturated fats during winter?
15. How does cholesterol prevent solidification of cell membranes in cold temperatures while also
prevent cells from becoming too fluid in warmer temperatures?
16. What role do cell membrane carbohydrates play?