molecular and ceulluar content for life Flashcards
what is phylogeny?
the evolutionary development and diversification of a species or group of organisms, or of a particular feature of an organism
what is life?
life is the harnessing of chemical energy, in such a way that the energy harnessing device makes a copy of itself
what are the most important biological elements?
H, C, N, O, P, S: main elements involving organic molecules.
Si important for plants
H, Na, Mg, K, Ca, Cl- key ions in cellular fluids transition elements-form enzymes.
why is life carbon based?
carbon goes both ways on the periodic table, can form polar and nonpolar covalent bond. 4 electrons in outershell, so can form 4 bonds as single or combo. can forms rings, spheres and tubes.
what is aliphatic?
long branches cyclic chains
what is aromatic?
benzene ring, form rings.
what are the different organic compounds?
sugar, carbonhydrates, fatty acids, lipids, amino acids, proteins, organic bases, nucleic acids.
what are carbohydrates?
hydrates of carbon. mono, di and poly. attached hydroxyl groups. soluble in water. energy storage, structure formation.
what are lipids?
storing energy, forming cell membrane, signalling. hydrophobic or amphiphilic. form barriers for ions.
why is the cell wall important?
gives structure, less permeable, moderates properties, stabilises and raises melting point, controllled by environment.
what are amino acids?
building blocks of proteins. alpha carbon and carboxyl group. side chain governs properties. 70 amino acids, onyl 21 proteins.
what does LCA stand for
last universal common ancestor
what are peptide bonds?
dehydration process. water, condensation. forms polypeptides and animo acids. acts as enxymes, act as channel through membrane.
what is the hierarchy of proteins?
primary (sequence of amino acids), secondary (alpha helix and beta-sheet, hydrogen bonds), tertiary (polypeptide chains) and quaternary (linked groups of different polypeptide chains)
what is keratin?
spiral coil, show coiling, hair pair of coiled coils, protofilament 4 right hand twists. disulphide bonds and hydrogen bonds.
what is CRYO EM?
cryo-electron microscopy, look t molecule in the original state and can track protein conformational change. can be designed to target drugs.
what is C ray crystallography?
need to crystallise molecules, therefore not in original shape and cannot track proteins.
what is energy?
lipid bilayer can foster energy. water flows through. ATP: universal currency of energy in all life.
how much ATP do we use every day?
40 Kg
what is ATP?
energy. nucleotide on a sugar with a phosphate group.atop goes to ADP to yiled energy.
what do phosphates have?
the importance of being ionised
linking groups of nuclei acids
phosphates relatively stable
what is replication?
RNA and DNA have 5 different nitrogenous bases. 3 in common, and uracil and thymine. DNA replication, transcription, translation, into a protein. ribosomes involved.
what is special about mitochrondria?
have their own DNA, have double membrnane.
