BCH 361 - Exam 1 - Chapter 1 - Biochemistry and the unit of life Flashcards
Carbon-carbon bonds are stronger than silicon- silicon bonds.
What are the two consequences in the difference in bond strength?
- Large molecules can be built with the use of carbon-carbon bonds as the backbone due to the stability of the bonds.
- More energy is released when carbon-carbon bonds undergo combustion than when silicon reacts with oxygen.
Carbon-based molecules are stronger construction materials and are better fuels than silicon-based materials.
What is a Protein?
A biological macromolecule composed of a linear array of amino acids joined by peptide bonds; roles of proteins in biological processes include catalysis, transport and storage, motion, mechanical support, immune protection, the generation and transmission of nerve impulses, and the control of growth and differentiation.
Allow mobility and provide defense against environmental dangers.
Protein catalysts are called ______.
Enzymes.
What is a nucleic acid?
A macromolecule composed of nucleotide monomers that stores and transfers information in cells. DNA and RNA are nucleic acids.
What is a nucleotide?
A nitrogenous purine or pyrimidine base linked to a sugar, which is in turn linked to one or more phosphoryl groups.
What are the two types of nucleic acids?
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
ACGT is an acronym for the four bases that make up DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
A with T, C with G
ACGU is an acronym for the four bases that make up RNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and uracil (U).
Key component of lipids
Part of the molecule is hydrophilic and part is hydrophobic. Allows lipids to form barriers that delineate the cell from its environment and establish intracellular compartments.
The most common carbohydrate fuel is ______. It is stored in animals as ______. In plants the storage form is ______.
Glucose. Glycogen. Starch.
Francis Crick called the scheme that underlies information processing at the level of gene expression ______ ______.
How does information flow?
Central dogma.
DNA (replication) –> transcription –> RNA –> translation –> protein.
What is replication?
What is transcription & translation?
What is a ribosome?
The process of copying a genome.
Transcription is the process of copying DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA), and translation is the process of decoding mRNA into amino acids to create proteins.
A ribosome decodes the information in mRNA and translates it into the amino acid sequence of a protein.
Two main types of cells.
Prokaryotic cells are simpler and smaller than eukaryotic cells, and they lack a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.
What are the two biochemical features that minimally constitute a cell?
- There must be a barrier that separates the cell from its environment.
- An inside that is chemically different from the environment that accommodates the biochemistry of living.
The barrier is called the plasma membrane.
The intracellular material is the cytoplasm.
What is the cytoplasm?
The cytoplasm is the site of a host of biochemical processes, including the initial stage of glucose metabolism, fatty acid synthesis, and protein synthesis.
The biochemistry of the cytoplasm is highly organized by a network of structural filaments called the ______.
Cytoskeleton.
The cytoskeleton is a network of three kinds of protein fibers—actin filaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules—that support the structure of the cell, help to localize certain biochemical activities, and even serve as “molecular highways” by which molecules can be shuttled around the cell
What is the mitochondrion?
Has two membranes, an outer mitochondrial membrane that is in touch with the cytoplasm and an inner mitochondrial membrane that defines the matrix of the mitochondrion.
In mitochondria, fuel molecules undergo combustion into carbon dioxide and water with the generation of cellular energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
