Biochemistry Flashcards
What has more carbon oxidation: alkane (in fats) or carbon dioxide?
Carbon dioxide
What is phosphorylation and de-phosphorylation?
The addition or removal of PO4
What is the final product of catabolism?
Carbon dioxide
What is more reduced: alcohol or aldehyde?
Alcohol
What are three biomolecules used for information storage?
DNA
RNA
NADH/NAD
What is the energy currency?
ATP
What do peptides and proteins consist of?
Amino acids
Give three types of lipids
Triglycerides
Phospholipids
Steroids
What are the two nucleic acids?
DNA
RNA
Name 4 disaccharides
Lactose
Maltose
Sucrose
Cellobiose
Name two polysaccharides
Cellulose
Glycogen
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
Energy is neither created or destroyed
What is the second law of thermodynamics?
When energy is converted from one form to another, some of that energy becomes unavailable to do work
What are reactions in which the total free energy of the product is less that the total free energy of the reactant?
Exergonic reactions
In an exergonic reaction, what is deltaG? and are the reactions spontaneous or not?
Negative and spontaneous
What are reactions in which the total free energy of the products is more than the total free energy of the reactants?
Endergonic
What is deltaG in endergonic reactions?
positive
deltaG values of near zero are characteristic of what?
Readily reversible reactions
What enzyme catalyses the reaction of glucose-6-phosphate to glucose-1-phosphate?
Phosphoglucomutase
What are anhydride bonds?
High energy bonds
What is catabolism?
breaking down complex molecules into smaller ones and releasing energy
What is anabolism?
Synthesising complex molecules out of smaller ones in energy-consuming reactions
Give an example for a catabolic pathway?
Glycolysis
What pathway is the initial breakdown of glucose for the generation of ATP?
Glycolysis
What is the net gain of ATP molecules per glucose molecule in glycolysis?
Net gain of 2 ATP
Give an example of an anabolic pathway?
Gluconeogenesis
What pathway involves making new glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors such as pyruvate?
Gluconeogenesis
What are useful control points in metabolic pathways?
Reactions with large negative deltaG values are useful control points
Is water polar or non-polar?
Polar
What shape are water molecules?
Tetrahedral shape and forms a dipole
What are amphipathic molecules?
Both hydrophilic and hydrophobic
What type of molecule is sodium palmitate?
Amphipathic
What do peptides have at each end of their molecules?
N-terminal residue and C-terminal residue
What direction is the peptide chain in?
From N-terminal to C-terminal
State three things about peptide bonds?
Peptide bonds have a partial double bond character
Peptide bonds are planar
Peptide bonds are strong and rigid
What is pH?
The measurement of the amount of protons in a solutions
What important equation lets us calculate the properties of buffer solutions?
Henderson-Hasselbalch equation
State the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation
pH = pKa + log [A-]/[HA]
What substances tend to resist a change of pH on addition of moderate amounts of acid or base?
A buffer solution
What are zwitterions?
Amino acids without charged side groups exist as these in neutral solution
What is the pH at which a molecule has no net charge called?
The isoelectric pH
What can act as buffers?
Proteins e.g. haemoglobin in the blood
What is the primary structure of a protein?
The sequence of amino acid residues
What is the secondary structure of a protein?
The localised conformation of the polypeptide backbone
What is the tertiary structure of a protein?
The three-dimensional structure of an entire polypeptide chain, including its side chains
What is the quaternanry structure of a protein?
The spatial arrangement of polypeptide chains in a protein with multiple subunits
What two angles can polypeptides rotate around?
angle between:
The alpha-carbon and the amino group
The alpha-carbon and the carboxyl group
What are the three types of secondary protein structures?
- Alpha helix
- Beta strands and sheets
- Triple helix
How many polypeptide chains does an alpha helix have?
One
What residues break alpha helixes?
Proline residues
What two directions could betasheets be in?
Parallel or antiparallel
What are the turns between strands on beta sheets?
Glycine and proline
Give an example of a triple helix?
Collagen triple helix
What type of protein structure is the component of bone and conective tissues?
Collagen triple helix (secondary)
In what protein structure does this occur: three left handed helical chains twisted around each other form a right-handed superhelix?
Collagen triple helix
What 2 types of bonds do collagen triple helixes have?
Inter-chain H-bonds - involving hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline
Covalent inter- and intra-molecular bonds
What type of protein structure are fibrous proteins and globular proteins?
Tertiary structures
What type of proteins contain polypeptide chains organised approximately parallel along a single axis?
Fibrous proteins
Give two examples of fibrous protein?
- Keratin of hair and wool
2. Collagen of connective tissue of animals including cartilage, bones, teeth, skin and blood vessels
What proteins are folded into more or less spherical shapes?
Globular proteins
Which are soluble in water: Globular proteins or Fibrous protiens?
Globular protiens
Give two examples of globular proteins?
Myoglobin
Haemoglobin
What 5 forces stabilise tertiary protein structures?
- Covalent disulphide bonds
- Electrostatic interactions = salt bridges
- Hydrophobic interactions
- Hydrogen bonds: back bone, side chain
- Complex formation with metal ions
Where are charged (polar) side groups normally located?
On the outside of proteins
Where do amino acids with hydrophobic side-chains tend to cluster?
In the centre of globular proteins
In sickle cell anaemia - what is the single nucleotide sequence change?
In coding region of the beta-chain of haemoglobin A
What does the single nucleotide sequence change in sickle cell anaemia result in?
Valine instead of glutamic acid
What happens to haemoglobin under low oxygen conditions?
Haemoglobin polymerises which results in rigid, sickle shape cells
Give 2 examples of disease caused by malfunctions with folding polypeptide chains
Alzheimers
Parkinsons
What are prion proteins?
Normal components of teh brain
Where are disease-causing forms of prion proteins?
Enriched in beta-sheets (aggregates into multimeric complexes, resistant to degradation)
What do Thiol agents and reducing agents do to disulphide bonds?
Reduce and therby disrupt disulphide bonds
In myoglobin - what does the haem group contain?
An iron ion (Fe II) and a prosthetic group
How many subunits does haemoglobin have?
4 - two alpha and two beta chains
How many oxygen molecules can each sub unit of haemoglobin bind?
ONE
What is nucleotide to nucleotide?
Transcription
What is nucleotide to amino acid?
Translation
What is a nucleoside?
A base and sugar
What is a nucleotide?
A nucleoside and a phosphate group
What does ribose have attached to carbon 2?
OH
What does 2-deoxyribose have attached to its carbon 2?
H
What are the purines?
Adenine and Guanine
What are the pyrimidines?
Uracil, Thymine and Cytosine
What is a phosphodiester bond formed between?
A free 3’ OH group and a 5’ triphosphate group
What end of the DNA strand are new nucleotides added to?
3’
What drug is used to suppress HIV?
Retrovir
How many hydrogen bonds are between A and T?
2
How many hydrogen bonds are between C and G?
3
What type of replication is semi-conservative?
DNA replication
What is DNA replication catalysed by?
DNA polymerase
What is required to start DNA replication?
An RNA primer
What are the fragments called on a lagging strand?
Okazaki fragments
What unwinds the double helix?
DNA helicase
What are the 4 building blocks of DNA replication?
dATP
dTTP
dCTP
dGTP
During DNA replication one phosphate group froms phosphodiester bond, what do the other two leave as?
Pyrophosphate - energy supply
What strand is the leading strand?
(3’ - 5’)
What strand is the lagging strand?
(5’ - 3”)
What is the RNA primer synthesised by?
Primase
What are the 3 main classes of RNA?
- Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) - combines with proteins to form ribosomes where protein synthesis takes place
- transfer RNA (tRNA) - carries the amino acids to be incorporated into the protein
- messenger RNA (mRNA) - carries the genetic information for protein synthesis
What are the two stable types of RNA?
Ribosomal RNA and Tranfer RNA
How many types of RNA polymerases do prokaryotic cells have?
One
How many types of RNA polymerase fo eukaryotic cells have?
Pol I, Pol II and Pol III (3 types)
How can Pol I, Pol II and Pol II be distinguished?
By their sensitivity to toxins like alpha-amanitin
What does Pol II synthesise?
All mRNA