Polymers of Life Flashcards
Bonding between amines
Hydrogen bonding
Why can amine act as a base
The lone pair on the nitrogen can form a dative covalent bond with hydrogen ions and therefore can act as a base.
Bonding between amide
Hydrogen bonding between either N or O
How are amides formed
A condensation reaction between amides and carboxylic acids or acyl chlorides is called acylation
Define condensation
Two molecules react to form a larger molecule with the elimination of a smaller molecule.
What else can react to form amides
Ammonia and acyl chlorides
How are polyamides formed
A condensation reaction between diamines and dicarboxylic acids or diacyl chlorides
How are esters broken down
Broken down during hydrolysis using water and either an acid or base catalyst
How are amides broken down
Broken down during hydrolysis using water and either an acid or base catalyst
What is an enantiomers?
Non- superimposable mirror images of each, which cannot be rotated and has a chiral carbon
What is a chiral carbon
A chiral carbon is a carbon with four different functional groups attached to it.
What is a dipeptide
When two amino acids join
What is a tripeptide
When three amino acids join together
Structure of amino acid
H2NCRHCOOH
What is a zwitterion
Is an overall neutral molecule that has a both +ve and -ve charge in different parts of the molecule
What are proteins
Are condensation polymers, made by joining together a lot of amino acid monomers with peptide link
How to break a protein
Hot HCl and heated under reflux for 24 hours, to produce ammonium salts of ammonium salts, and the final mixture is neutralised using a base
Different protein structures
- Primary -> sequence of amino acids to form a polypeptide chain
- Secondary -> Peptide links form hydrogen bonds to form either a- helix or B- pleated sheets
- Tertiary - > a - helix coiled into a tertiary structure using different bonds
What bonds hold together tertiary structures
- Instantaneous dipole -induced dipole
- Ionic interactions (CO2 - AND NH3+)
- Hydrogen bonds
- Disulfide bridges (-SH)
What do base pairings allow for?
Base pairing allows for:
Synthesis of a complementary copy of itself – this replication of DNA occurs before cell division
Synthesis of a complementary copy of messenger RNA (mRNA) which is essential for protein synthesis
Process of Transcription ( chemistry version)
- Enzymes unzip a scetion of DNA relating to one protein - this strabd acts as atemplate
- RNA nucleotides are joined together by enzymes.
3.Once one section of DNA has been copied the double helix reforms
Process of Translation ( chemistry version)
1.mRNA leaves the nucleus moving into the cytoplasm as translation is carried out by ribosomes.
- Transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, with the complementary anti-codon, bring amino acids to the mRNA in the ribosome.
- Amino acids are assembled into a growing polymer chain. Having delivered its
amino acid, tRNA leaves the ribosome.
How many possible base triplet combinations are there
64
Describe what mRNA looks like
mRNA is a messenger RNA and is a single polynucleotide strand. Contains codons that are complementary to DNA’s codons
