Chapter 3: Carbon and Molecular Diversity of Life Flashcards
How many other atoms does Carbon bond to?
4
What are macromolecules?
polymers built from monomers
What do carbohydrates serve as?
fuel and building materials
What are lipids?
a diverse group of hydrophobic molecules
What do proteins include?
a diversity of structures, resulting in a wide range of functions
What do nucleic acids do?
store, transmit, and help express hereditary information
Living organisms are made up of chemicals based mostly on what element?
Carbon
What does Carbon account for?
the large diversity of biomolecules
What are organic compounds?
compounds containing carbon
What type of bonds can carbon form?
single and double
How do carbon structures vary?
ing length: they may be linear, branched, or enraged in a closed ring
What are hydrocarbons?
organic molecules consisting of only carbon and hydrogen which are a major part of fossil fuels like petroleum and make up hydrophobic fatty acid tails of lipids
What are isomers?
compounds that have the same number of atoms of the same elements but different structures and therefore different properties
How do structural isomers differ?
in their covalent arrangments of their atoms
What are cis-trans isomers?
when carbons have covalent bonds to the same atoms, but these atoms differ in their spatial arrangements due to the inflexibility of double bonds
What is a cis isomer?
when both x’s are on the same side of the double bond
What is a trans isomer?
when both x’s are on opposite sides of the double bond
What is an enantiomer?
isomers that are mirror images of each other and differ in shape due to the presence of an asymmetric carbon
What is an asymmetric carbon?
a carbon that is attached to 4 different covalent partners or groups
What are functional groups?
chemical groups that affect molecular function by being directly involved in chemical reactions
Why is an -OH?
a hydroxyl group
What properties does hydroxul have?
soluble in water
What is -C=O
a carbonyl group?
What is the compound name if the carbonyl group is at the end of an organic compound?
aldehyde
What is the compound name if the carbonyl group is not at the end of an organic compound?
ketone
What is -COOH?
a carboxyl group
What are compounds containing carboxyl groups known as?
organic acids that have a sour taste
What is -NH2?
an amino group
What is the name of a compound with an amino group?
an amine
What is an amino acid?
a compound that has an amino group and a carboxyl group
What is -SH?
a sulfhydryl group?
What is a sulfhydyl group very similar to?
a hydroxyl group
What does a sulfhydryl group?
help stabiize proteins
What common molecule has a sulfhydryl group?
cysteine
What is -PO4
A phosphate group
What is a phosphate group used in?
energy transfers
What are hthe basix dunctional groups?
amino
What are the acidic functional groups?
phosphate group and carboxyl group
What are the three major classes of macromolecules?
carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids and nucleic acids
What are macromolecules?
chainlike molecules that consist of individual building blocks
What is each individual building block of a macromolecule called?
a monomer
What is a dehydration synthesis or condensation reaction?
the formation of macromolecules occurs through chemical reactions where one molecule of water is released
What is a hydrolysis reaction?
when large macromolecules (polymers) are broken down into individual monomers.
What is needed for a hydrolysis reaction?
water and an enzyme
The vast variety of macromolecules is a direct result of?
a relatively small number of monomers that can be put together in an infinite number of combinations
What are the monomers of proteins?
amino acids
What are the three classes of carbohydrates?
monosaccharides, disaccharides, polysaccharides
What are examples of monosaccharides?
glucose, fructose, galactose, ribose, and glycerabehyde
What are examples of disaccharides?
sucrose, lactose, maltose
What are examples of polysaccharides?
starch, glycogen, chitin
Generally, monosacharides have a molecular formula of what?
CH2O
What are the two basic characteristics of a sugar?
a carbonyl group and multiple hydroxyl group
How are sugars most often found?
as rings in aqueous solutions
What is released when a disaccharide is formed from a monosaccharide?
Water
What is a glycoside linkage?
the covalent bond that is formed between two monosacchardies
How are polysaccharides formed?
when hundreds of monosaccharides are linked together
What are the primary functions of polysaccharides?
structural and energy storage
what is starch?
an energy storage molecule in plants that is made up of a long chain of glucose monomers
What is glycogen
in humans, glycogen is stored in the liver as an energy source
What is cellulose?
the structural carbohydrate that makes up the cell walls of plants
How do starch and glycogen differ?
starch is linear or slightly branched or glycogen is extensively branched
What is the main difference between starch and cellulose?
cellulose has beta linkages
What is chitin?
a structural carbohydrate that makes up the exoskeleton of insects
How are lipids different from other macromolecules?
lipids are the one class of large biological molecules that does not include true polymers and are not fenerally big enough to be considered true macromolecules
What important trait due all lipids share?
they are hydrophobic
What are fats also known as?
triglycerides, composed of 3 fatty acids and 1 glycerol
What is Gluctose + Fructose?
Sucrose
What is Glucose + Galactose?
Lactose
What is Glucose + Glucose
Maltose
Why is glycerol an alcohol?
due to the fact that it has hydrozyls as a functional group and therefore very soluble in water
Why are the long chain of fatty acids “acids”?
due to it having carboxyl groups at the end
What is released when fat is formed?
water, which is an example of a dehydration synthesis reaction
What are the specific type of bonds that are formed between the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in fats?
Ester linkages
What is a saturated fatty acid?
a fatty acid that has zero double bonds between carbon atoms and therefore as many hydrogen atoms as possible are bonded to the carbon skeleton
What is an unsaturated fatty acid?
a fatty acid that has one or more double bonds between carbon atoms and therefore has fewer hydrogen atoms on each double bonded carbon
Nearly every double bond in naturally occuring acids is what type of bond?
a cis double bond
What does a cis double bond create?
a kink or bend in the hydrocarbon chain
What are most animal fats?
Saturated meaning that they lack double bonds and their flexibility allows the fat molecules to pack together tightly forming a solid at room temperature
Fats of plants and fishes are generally what type of fatty acid
unsaturated and usually liquids at room temperatures and are therefore refered to as oils, DUE TO THE DOUBLE BOND
What does hydrogenatred vegetable oils refer to?
unsaturated acids that have been converted to saturated fatty acids by adding hydrogen that enables them to solidify. This produces trans double bonds which can contribute to coronary heart disease
What is the major function of fats?
energy storage
What is a phospholipid?
A molecule with a phosphate group on its head, making it hydrophilic but a fatty acid tail, making it hydrophobic at the tail
Why are phospholipids essential for cells?
becasue they are major components of cell memranes
What happens when phospholipids are added to water?
they assemble into double layered sturctures called a bilayer which shields their hydrocarbon tails from the water
What are steroids?
lipids that consist of a carbon skeleton consisting of four fused rings
What are the monomers of proteins?
amino acids
What is the characteristic of each amino acid determined by?
the R group it contains
What is a bond between amino acids called?
a peptide bond
What is a protein?
a biologically funcitonal structure made up of one more polupeptides folded and coiled into a specific three dimensional structure
How is a peptide bond formed?
when two amino acids are alignd with their carboxyl and amino group adjacent to one another a condensation reaction occurs
What does the function of a protein depend on?
its ability to recognize and bind to other molecules: providing an excellent example of the marriage of form and function
What is primary structure
the sequence of Amino Acids in a polypeptide that is held together by peptide bonds
What is a secondary structure of a protein?
the coils and folds that occur over the length of the primary structure that are stabalized by hydrogen bonds between atoms
What is an aplpha helix?
a coil that is produced due to H-bonding between every 4th amino acid
What is a beta pleated sheet?
a conformation where peptide chains lie parallel to each other and are held together by hydrogen bonds
What is silk?
a structural protein that is dominated by beta pleated shetts
What is a tertiary structure?
the three dimensional shape stabilize by the interactions between the side chains of amino acids (R groups)
What do hydrophobic interatctions cause?
non-polar side chains to congregate in the center of the molecule due to the fact that they are nonpolar and are pushedaway from the surrouunding water
What are disulfide bridges?
covalent bonds that occur between cysteine monomers
What is wuaternary structure?
the structure that is created when two or more poplypeptides are aggregated, which creates the overall properties of some proteins
How many polypeptides is hemogoblin made out of?
4: 2 alpha subunits and 2 beta subunits
What is sickle-cell disease?
a disease caused by a mutation that changes 1 amino acid in the primary structure of hemogoblin. The change is due to valine being substituted in for glutamic acid
When can proteins lose thier natural conformation?
if the pH, concentration, temperature, or other aspects of the protein’s enviroment
What is denaturation?
a loss of natural conformation
What is renaturation?
a return to the normal conformation
What is X-ray crystallography?
the method most commonly used to determnine the 3-D shape of proteins
How do Alzheimer’s Parkison’s and mad cow disease relate to biochem?
these diseases are caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins
What are nucleic acids?
the biomolecules that carry the information of a cell. One gener carries the information necessary to prpduce the amino acids of one protein
What are the two basic types of nucleic acid?
DNA and RNA
Describe how a polypeptide is produced?
DNA is transcribed in the nucleues into the nucleic acid RNA. The information then leaves the nucleus through nuclear pores and enters the cytoplasm of the cell. The information is then translated at the ribosome (which are present in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells) and a polypeptide is produced.
What are the monomers of nucleic acids?
nucleotides
How are nucleotides bound in nucleic acids?
through a dehydration synthesis reaction which releases water
What are the bases found in DNA?
A, T, G, C
What are the bases found in RNA?
A, U, G, C
How many strands is DNA made out of?
2
How many strands is RNA made out of
1
What is the structure of dna called
double helix
How are the strands of DNA held together?
through hydrogen bonds
What does antiparallel mean?
the sugar and phsophate backbones run in opposite directions
What does cytosine bond with?
guanine
What deos adenine only bond with
Thymine in DNA and Uracil in RNA
Explain how an analysis of DNA and protein primary structure cna give evidence of evolutionary relatedness between organisms.
Because DNA is passed from generation to generation so siblings have similar DNA
