Organic Macromolecules - Carbohydrates and Nucleic Acids

Vocabulary flashcards covering organic chemistry concepts, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, monomers, polymers, and chemical reactions from Chapter 2.

Organic Molecules

Molecules that contain carbon atoms covalently bonded to hydrogen atoms, mostly associated with living or once-living organisms.

Building Blocks of Macromolecules

The sub-unit monomers of the four primary organic macromolecules: monosaccharides for carbohydrates, amino acids for proteins, fatty acids and glycerol for lipids, and nucleotides for nucleic acids.

Monomer

A small organic molecule (subunit or building block) that can join together with other similar subunits to form a polymer chain.

Polymer

A large organic molecule composed of many repeating monomer subunits linked together.

Dehydration Reaction

A chemical reaction that links monomers together into a polymer by forming a covalent bond and releasing a $H_2O$ molecule.

Hydrolysis Reaction

A chemical reaction that breaks a polymer into smaller monomer subunits by cleaving covalent bonds with the addition of a $H_2O$ molecule.

Carbohydrates

Organic macromolecules containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with the general molecular formula $C_n(H_2O)_n$, composed of one or more carbon rings.

Monosaccharide

A carbohydrate monomer consisting of one ring of 5 or 6 carbon atoms (e.g., glucose, fructose) that functions as an immediate energy source or structural component.

Disaccharide

A carbohydrate composed of two monosaccharide units (two carbon rings) joined by a covalent bond, such as sucrose, lactose, and maltose.

Polysaccharide

A carbohydrate polymer composed of many monosaccharide sugar units linked together in a chain.

Glycogen

A highly branched short-term energy storage polysaccharide used by animal cells to store and rapidly release glucose.

Starch

A moderately branched short-term energy storage polysaccharide used by plant cells to store glucose.

Cellulose

A long, unbranched structural polysaccharide that packs tightly to form rigid cell walls in plants.

Chitin

A structural polysaccharide that forms the rigid exoskeleton of insects and crustaceans.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

A double-stranded nucleic acid organized into a double helix structure that acts as the genetic material encoding instructions to make polypeptides.

Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)

A nucleic acid containing ribose sugar and uracil base, present in various functional forms (e.g., tRNA, rRNA, miRNA) that assist in synthesizing polypeptides from DNA.

Gene

A segment of DNA that contains the specific genetic instructions to code for a polypeptide.

Nucleotide

The monomer of nucleic acids, consisting of a phosphate group, a monosaccharide sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a nitrogenous base.

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

A specialized nucleotide composed of adenine, ribose sugar, and three phosphate groups that functions as the primary immediate energy source for cells.

GDP / GTP Regulation

Nucleotide-mediated signaling system involving Guanosine Diphosphate (GDP) and Guanosine Triphosphate (GTP) to regulate cellular communication pathways.