Biochemistry Review:
Compounds can be broken up into two major groups:
Organic: compounds that include both carbon and hydrogen bonds
Examples are carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and proteins
Inorganic: compounds that do NOT contain carbon and hydrogen together
Examples: CO2, CO, H2O
Water is a super important inorganic molecule
Water is polar; because
it does NOT share it’s
electrons equally
Important Properties
of Water are:
Because of cohesion water flows and sticks to itself so
we have surface tension and because of adhesion
water sticks to other “polar” substances so we have
capillary action. So water can travel up a plant.
Cohesion
Adhesion
Solvent
Solid density (ice floats)
Heat capacity
To build macromolecules a water
molecule must be removed for
every two monomers. This is
Dehydration Synthesis
Macromolecules are made up of monomers. Remember monomers are building block of repeating
units that form polymers.
Other names for Dehydration Synthesis are:
Anabolic process
Polymerization
Condensation reaction
When breaking down macromolecules a water molecule must be added to separate
the monomers…..This process is called hydrolysis reaction
Breaking down macromolecules
is also known as:
Catabolic process
Depolymerization
ALL macromolecules need to be
broken down in order to be used
by the organism. This includes
carbohydrates, lipids, proteins
Macromolecules:
Macromolecule
Monomer
Elements
Carbohydrate
1:2:1 ratio
Glucose (mainly) monosaccharides
C-H-O
Monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides
Main source of energy
End in “ose”
Macromolecules Continued:
Lipids
Glycerol and fatty acid chains
C-H-O
Not a 1:2:1 ratio
Main source of energy “storage”
May end in “ol”
Macromolecules Continued: Stores your heredity material
Nucleic Acids
Nucleotides
DNA and RNA
Nucleotide is made up of three parts:
5 carbon sugar
phosphate group
nitrogenous base
DNA- A T C G
RNA- A-U-C-G
C-H-O-P-N
Macromolecules Continued:
Proteins
Proteins tend to end in “ase”
Sometimes they end in “in”
Amino Acids
C-H-O-S-N
All amino acids have an
Amino group
Carboxylic acid group
Carbon-H
And a side chain “R” this is the
unique part of an amino acid
Protein structure: See below
Proteins are important for structure. You are a blob of protein.
Proteins are enzymes-----enzymes (biological catalysts) speed up chemical reactions by
reducing the energy of activation so reactions can take place quickly.
Lock and Key…….enzymes
Enzymes are very susceptible to
pH
temperature
other enzymes (can destroy other enzymes or block other enzymes)