Marcomolecules Flashcards
What are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are organic compounds made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
What are some properties of carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates have names that often end in ‘-ose’, are the most important short or long-term energy source for living things, providing 4 calories per gram, and are found in foods like bread, pasta, rice, fruit, and vegetables.
What are monosaccharides?
Monosaccharides are “simple sugars” made of one sugar unit. They taste sweet and include six-carbon sugars among their types.
What are disaccharides?
Disaccharides are carbohydrates made of two monosaccharides put together.
What are examples of disaccharides?
Examples include maltose (found in alcoholic beverages), sucrose (table sugar), and lactose (found in milk).
Examples include maltose (found in alcoholic beverages), sucrose (table sugar), and lactose (found in milk).
What is the process to bond two simple sugars together to form a disaccharide?
In order to bond two simple sugars together, water must be removed, a process known as dehydration synthesis.
What are polysaccharides?
Polysaccharides are carbohydrates made of long chains of many monosaccharides.
What are some examples of polysaccharides?
Examples include starch, which is how plants store carbohydrates, glycogen, which is how animals store carbohydrates in the liver and muscles, and cellulose, which is found in plant cell walls.
What are lipids?
Lipids are organic compounds made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in large amounts, and they are not water soluble.
What are some functions of lipids?
Lipids make up hormones and cell membranes, cushion and insulate the body, and serve as a good long-term energy source, providing 9 calories per gram.
What are triglycerides?
Triglycerides are important as concentrated energy storage molecules, containing more than twice the energy per gram as carbohydrates and proteins.
What is the composition of triglycerides?
Triglycerides are made up of three fatty acids and glycerol. Glycerol is an alcohol molecule with three hydroxyl groups, while fatty acids are long chains of carbon and hydrogen with an acid group at the end.
What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?
Saturated fatty acids have only single bonds between carbon atoms and form straight chains, while unsaturated fatty acids have at least one carbon-carbon double bond, causing the molecule to be kinked or bent.
What are phospholipids?
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Phospholipids are the main component of the cell membrane. They are similar in structure to triglycerides, but one of the fatty acids is replaced by a phosphate group
What is the structure of phospholipids?
Phospholipids have both a hydrophobic (water-repelling) end and a hydrophilic (water-attracting) end due to their composition of fatty acid tails and phosphate heads.
