Chapter 3- The chemical building blocks of life Flashcards
The framework of biological molecules consist predominantly of _______ atoms bonded to other _______ atoms or to atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or phosphorus
Carbon
Because carbon atoms can form up to _______ covalent bonds, molecules containing carbon can form straight chains, branches, or even rings, balls, tubes, and coils
4
Molecules consisting only of carbon and hydrogen are called _______
Hydrocarbon
Because the oxidation of hydrocarbon compounds results in a net release of energy, hydrocarbons make good _______
Fuels
OH is called a _______ group
Hydroxyl
Are hydrocarbons polar or nonpolar?
Nonpolar
Organic molecules having the same molecular or empirical formula can exist in different forms called _______
Isomers
If there are differences in the actual structure of an isomers carbon skeleton, they are called _______ _______
Structural isomers
A form of an isomer that has the same carbon skeleton but differs in how The groups attached to this skeleton are arranged in space
Stereoisomers
A subcategory of stereoisomers, called _______, are actually mirror images of each other
Enantiomers
A molecule that has mirror image versions it’s called a _______ molecule 
Chiral
Two examples of enantiomers
D sugars and L amino acids
Biological macromolecules are traditionally grouped into what 4 things?
Carbohydrates, nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids
A long molecule built by linking together a large number of small, similar chemical subunits called monomers
Polymers
The nature of a polymer is determined by its constituent _______
Monomers
Nucleic acids are polymers of _______, and proteins are polymers of _______ _______
Nucleotides; amino acids
Polymers are built through _______ reactions and broken down by _______ reaction
Dehydration; hydrolysis
The process of positioning and stressing, termed _______, is carried out within cells by enzymes
Catalysis
In this reaction, hydrogen atom is attached to one subunit and a hydroxyl group to the other, breaking the covalent bond joining the subunits
Hydrolysis
_______ can distinguish structural and stereoisomeric difference of the sugars
Enzymes
_______ groups have definite chemical properties that they retain no matter where they occur
Functional
Chemical reactions involve the formation or breaking of chemical _______
Bonds
Lipids are macromolecules formed through _______ synthesis
Dehydration
Formation of large molecules by the loss of water
Dehydration synthesis
Breakdown of large molecules by the addition of water 
Hydrolysis
The extent of the chemical reaction is influenced by what three factors?
Temperature, concentration of reactants and products, catalysts 
Molecules with a 1:2:1 ratio of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
Carbohydrates
Because carbohydrates contain many carbon hydrogen bonds, which releases energy when they are rearranged, they are well suited for _______ storage
Energy
The simplest of carbohydrates are _______
Monosaccharides
The most important 6-carbon sugar used for energy storage is _______
Glucose
Glucose can exist in and two different forms, _______ and _______
Alpha and beta
Enzymes can distinguish structural and stereo isomeric _______ of the sugars
Difference
Glucose can be linear or two different _______ configuration
Ring
_______ is a structural isomer that differs in the position of the carbonyl carbon
Fructose
_______ is a stereoisomer that differs in the position of -OH and -H groups relative to the ring
Galactose
Transport forms of sugars are commonly made by linking two monosaccharides together to form _______
Disaccharides
Disaccharides serve as effective reservoirs of _______ bc the enzymes that normally use glucose in an organism cannot break the bond linking the two monosaccharides subunits 
Glucose
When glucose forms a disaccharide with the structural isomer fructose, the resulting disaccharide is _______, or table sugar
Fructose
_______ is the form most plants use to transport glucose and is the sugar that most animals and humans eat
Sucrose
When glucose is linked to the stereoisomer galactose, the resulting disaccharide is _______, or milk sugar
Lactose
_______ are longer polymers made up of monosaccharides that have been joined through dehydration reactions
Polysaccharides
_______, a storage polysaccharide, consists entirely of alpha glucose molecules linked in long chains
Starch
_______, a structural polysaccharide, also consists of glucose molecules linked in chains but these molecules are beta glucose
Cellulose
Polysaccharides are two monosaccharides linked by _______ synthesis
Dehydration
Organisms store the metabolic energy Contained in monosaccharides by converting them into disaccharides, such as _______
Maltose
The starch with the simplest structure is _______
Amylose
The long chains of amylose tend to _______ up in water, a property that renders amylose insoluble
Coil
Most plant starch is a somewhat more complicated variant of amylose called _______
Amylopectin
The comparable to starch in animals is _______
Glycogen
_______ is an insoluble polysaccharide that contains branched amylose chains and has a much longer average chain length and more branches than plant starch 
Glycogen
Cellulose is a polymer of _______ glucose
Beta
_______ is the chief component of plant cell walls
Cellulose
The starch-hydrolyzing enzymes that occur in most organisms cannot break the bond between two beta glucose units because they only recognize _______ glucose linkages
Alpha
Cellulose cannot be broken down by most animals, which is why it is mainly used for structural purposes, but some animals are able to use it in their _______ tract
Digestive