Exam 2 Flashcards
(45 cards)
What are macromolecules?
Large molecules composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms
What are the four classes of macromolecules?
- carbohydrates
- lipids
- proteins
- nucleic acid
What is a polymer?
Long molecule consisting of many similair building blocks.
What is a monomer?
The building blocks of polymers.
Which 3 of the 4 types of macromolecules are polymers?
- carbohydrates
- proteins
- nucleic acids
What is a dehydration reaction?
Two monomers bonded together through the loss of a water molecule.
What is hydrolysis?
A reaction were a polymer is broken down by adding water molecules.
What are carbohydrates?
- serve as fuel and building material
- includes sugars and polymers of sugars
- simplest carbohydrates are monosaccharides, or single sugars
- polysaccharides are polymers composed of many sugar building blocks
What is the typical molecular formula of monosaccharides?
Multiples of CH20
- C2H402
- C6H12O6
What is the most common monosaccharide?
Glucose (C6H12O6)
How are monosaccharides classified?
- By the location of carbonyl group (C=O) as aldose (if carbonyl group is at the end of the skeleton) or ketose (if carbonyl group is within the carbon skeleton).
- By the number of carbons in the carbon skeleton
How are monosaccharides often presented, and how does this differ from their actual typical form?
- Often depicted as linear skeleton
- Typically form rings in aqueous solutions
What is a disaccharide?
Two monosaccharides joined by a dehydration reaction?
What is the covalent bond between the two monosaccharides in a disaccharide called?
Glycosidic linkage
What are the roles of polysaccharides?
storage and structural
What determines the structure and function of a polysaccharide?
Its sugar monomers and the positions of it’s glycosidic linkages.
What is starch?
- A storage polysaccharide of plants consisting entirely of glucose monomers
- plants store surplus starch as granules within chloroplasts and other plastids
- simplest form of starch is amylose
What is glycogen?
- storage polysaccharide in animals
- vertebrates store glycogen mainly in liver and muscle cells
What is cellulose?
- A polysaccharide that is a major component of cell walls
- like starch it is a polymer of glucose, but the glycosidic linkages differ
- difference is based on two ring forms for glucose : alpha (α) and beta (β)
What is the shape of polymer with α glucose?
Helical
What is the shape pf polymers with β glucose?
Straight. H atoms on one strand can bond with OH groups on other strands.
What are microfibrils?
- Parallel cellulose molecules held together by straight polymers of β glucose monomers bonding H atoms to OH groups.
- Form strong building materials for plants
Can humans digest cellulose?
No. The enzymes hat digest starch by hydrolysing α linkages cannot hydrolyse the β linkages in cellulose, and it passes through the digestive tract as insoluble fibre.
How do some animals digest starch?
Many herbivores have symbiotic relations with microbes the produce enzymes that can break down cellulose.