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MAT209 > Chemical Components of Cells > Flashcards

Chemical Components of Cells Flashcards

Lecture 2

1
Q

What element is life based on

A

Life is based on carbon atoms and chemical reactions that take place in solution. This is all dominated and coordinated by polymeric molecules.

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2
Q

96.5% of living organisms weight consists of just…

A
  • Carbon
  • Nitrogen
  • Oxygen
  • Hydrogen
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3
Q

Cells contain 4 families of small organic molecules

A
  • Sugars
  • Fatty Acids
  • Amino Acids
  • Nucleotides
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4
Q

The building block of the cell is Sugars. What is the larger unit of the cell?

A

Polysaccharides

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5
Q

The building block of the cell is Fatty Acids. What is the larger unit of the cell?

A

Fats/ Lipids/ Membranes

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6
Q

The building block of the cell is Amino Acids. What is the larger unit of the cell?

A

Proteins

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7
Q

The building block of the cell is Nucleotides . What is the larger unit of the cell?

A

Nucleic Acids

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8
Q

Whats is the main use of sugars

A

Energy source for cells and subunits for polysaccharides

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9
Q

What are the different sugar types

A 
Monosaccharides 
Disaccharides 
Polysaccharides
Aldoses 
Ketoses 
Oligosaccharides
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10
Q

How are monosaccharides formed

A

Condensation and/or Hydrolysis

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11
Q

How are Disaccarides formed

A

Formed by condensation and/or hydrolysis

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12
Q

How are polysaccharides and oligosaccharides formed

A

Polymerisation of monosaccharides leads to the formation of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides

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13
Q

What structure do sugars exist in

A

Ring structures as aldehyde/ketone groups of sugar react with -OH(hydroxyl) group

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14
Q

Small oligosaccharides can link with lipids or proteins to form?

A

Glycolipids or glycoproteins

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15
Q

Aldoses and Ketoses have…

A

An aldehyde group (CH=O) or a ketone group.

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16
Q

Fatty acids - Main use

A

Main components of cell membranes. They are used for their construction and the membranes are largely composed of phospholipids

17
Q

The two main parts of the fatty acids structure

A

Hydrocarbon tail and a hydrophilic head

18
Q

The Hydrocarbon tail can vary

A

These can be saturated or unsaturated. This accounts for the difference between hard and soft margarine. The addition of hydrogen to unsaturated bonds results in saturated C-C bonds, increasing the melting point thus “hardening” it.

19
Q

Fatty acids have concentrated food reserves in cells

A

-These are stores through ester linkage to glycerol which forms triglycerols
These are 3 fatty acid chains joined to 1 glycerol molecule
- They are stores in the cytoplasm of cells
- 6 times more energy than glucose by weight

20
Q

Fatty acids are Amphipathic.

What does this mean?

A

They are both hydrophillic and hydrophobic. This induces the membrane forming ability, produces a lipid bilayer

21
Q

Amino acids are…

A

The sub units of proteins

Therefor proteins are just amino acid polymers

22
Q

Amino acids all possess what groups

A

Carboxylic acid group
Amino Acid Groups

This produces polarity

23
Q

Amino acids all contain how many carbon atoms

A

A single carbon atom

alpha- carbon

24
Q

Where does the chemical varieties in amino acids come from

A

The side chains

25
Q

What bond is between amino acids

A

Peptide bond.

This means a chain of amino acids is a peptide

26
Q

What are the main units of Nucleotides

A

They are the subunits of DNA and RNA

27
Q

What is the structure of Nucleotides

A

They are nitrogen containing ring compounds (the base) linked to a 5 carbon sugar. They carry at leas 1 phosphate group.
The bases come together in different orders which create different nucleotides

28
Q

-L- and D- optical isomers… .

A

only L- isomers in proteins

-side chains can be basic, acidic, polar, non-polar

29
Q

Bases in nuceotides are either

A

Purines (guanine(G) + adenine(A))

OR

Pyrimidines (cytosine( C) +thymine(T) + Uracil(U))

30
Q

What do nucleotides act as

A

Short term carriers of energy

31
Q

Nucelotides come together to form

A

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) this is made of 3 phosphates linked by the energy rich phosphoanhydride bonds. When there rupture energy is released

32
Q

The most fundamental role of nucleotides is

A

Storage and retrieval of biological information through the construction of nucleic acids. These are linked by phosphodiester bonds.

Ribose gives ribonucleic acids (RNA) and deoxyribose gives deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA)

  • DNA double stranded -> GATC,
  • RNA single stranded -> GAUC

The linear sequence encodes information

-G and C have triple bond but A=T is only double bond (or A=U)

MAT209 (15 decks)

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