BIOMOLECULE Flashcards
●Life on earth is based on carbon compounds that we call
● are macromolecules or “giant molecules.”
biomolecule
They are giant because they are polymers made of hundreds or even thousands of smaller molecules called
monomers
Four major kinds of biomolecule
- Carbohydrates
- Lipids
- Proteins
- Nucleic acids
Used as a source of energy, ____ are a class of biomolecules that includes
sugar and polymers of sugars
Carbohydrates
These are organic compounds that primarily consist
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that occur in a
1:2:1 RATIO
the monomers and fundamental units of carbohydrates that cannot be further broken down or hydrolyzed into smaller sugars
Monosaccharides
Mono =
Sacchar =
- ONE
- SUGAR
Types of Monosaccharides
Aldoses
Ketoses
Sugar units that contain an aldehyde group
Aldoses
Sugar units that contain a ketone group
Ketoses
● Form that circulates in our bloodstream
○ Known as dextrose
Glucose
● Occurs in ripe and sweet fruits
○ Mango is the sweetest fruit on the planet
Fructose
● Makes up the sugar in milk
Galactose
● A major structural component of DNA nucleotides
○ A pentose
Deoxyribose
● A carbohydrate that consists of two to ten units of monosaccharides
○ Most commonly occurring two forms of oligosaccharides are disaccharides
○ Di = two
Oligosaccharides
○ are formed by dehydration synthesis
○ We encounter many forms of disaccharides daily
Disaccharides
● In plants, it is abundant in sugar cane which is processed to produce table sugar
Sucrose
● In barely, it can be fermented to produce alcoholic beverages
Maltose
● Major sugar found in cow’s milk
Lactose
● A trisaccharide found in cabbages and asparagus
Raffinose
● Large molecules that consist of hundreds to thousands of monosaccharide monomers
○ Long chains of complex carbohydrates
Polysaccharides
Poly =
Sacchar =
- MANY
- SUGAR
The most common polysaccharides
● Cellulose
● Chitin
● Starch
● glycogen
● Primary storage polysaccharide in plants
Starch
● The storage polysaccharide in animal and fungal cells
Glycogen
● Primary structural carbohydrate in plats
○ Major component of plant cell walls
Cellulose
consist of glycerol molecule with three fatty acid chains that are combined
through dehydration reaction
Typical fat
two types of fatty acids
○ Saturated fatty acids
○ Unsaturated fatty acids
■ Have no double bonds in their hydrocarbon chains which gives them a straight-chain conformation
Saturated fatty acids
■ Have hydrocarbon chains that contain one or more double bonds between carbon atoms. These bonds usually bend in the carbon chain
Unsaturated fatty acids
● They are produced from hydrogenation
○ Common in fast foods, fried foods, and junk food products
trans fats
● They have tails of two fatty acid chains and a head that contains a phosphate group
● A vital class of lipids because they are the primary components of cell membranes
Phospholipids
● Produced by plants to prevent desiccation or water loss when exposed to too much
sunlight
● Waxy water repellent layers are both present in feathers of birds and exoskeleton of
insects
● Beeswax is a natural wax produced in honeycombs
Waxes
AMINO ACIDS HAVE (5)
○ Central carbon
○ Amino group
○ Carboxyl group
○ Hydrogen atom
○ R group
how many amino acids in living organisms have different R groups , which give them
varying chemical properties in the cell’s physiological conditions
20
● Cells link amino acid monomers together by dehydration reactions
○ Bond between adjacent amino acids is called a peptide bond
○ Process of dehydration reaction, one amino acid releases an H+ and the other
releases OH-
. Thus, a water molecule is produced
Peptide bond formation
● Some conditions can cause a protein to unravel and lose its normal shape
○ Examples include ph and temperature
Protein denaturation
● Keratin hair and silk in spider webs are examples of structural proteins
○ Can be found in horns, claws, hooves, and outer skin of vertebrates
Structural proteins
● mostly globular proteins that catalyze reactions
○ Very specific to the substrate molecule or reactants, reactions of which are
catalyzed
Enzymes
● Channel and carrier proteins allow the movement of different molecules across the
cell membrane
Transport Proteins
● Interactions between antigens and antibodies help trigger immune responses
Immune Proteins
● Present in muscle cells
○ helps the body to initiate various forms of movements
Contractile Proteins
● Provide amino acids for growing organisms
○ Germinating seeds and developing embryos in eggs
Storage Proteins
● Store and transmit genetic information
○ Found in nucleus or nucleoid
○ Two types: DNA & RNA
Nucleic Acids
Roles of Nucleotides
● Involved in metabolic activities
● Regulate enzymatic reactions
● Store large amounts of energy (ATP)
Components of Nucleotides
● Base
● 5-carbon Sugar
● Phosphate Group
● The sugar-phosphate backbone is a structural feature of DNA that is bound by
repeating phosphodiester linkages
○ The backbone gives the dna its negative charge
Organization of Nucleotides in DNA
Most commonly occurring two forms of oligosaccharides are
disaccharides
