Biol 1201: C5

Structure & Function of Large Biological Molecules

What are carbs, proteins, and nucleic acids?

polymers

Dehydration synthesis?

Removing water to form bonds(forms glycosidic linkage)

Hydrolysis?

adding water to break bonds

What do carbs consist of?

sugars and polymers of sugars

What is the common formula for monosaccharides.

CH2O(most common is glucose C6H12O6)

what do monosaccharides serve as?

major fuel for cells and raw material for bulding molecules

functions of starch, glycogen, and cellulose?

storage, storage in muscles, structure(plant cell wall)

a vs b glucose structure

hydroxyl group on bottom right vs top right

starch vs cellulose

OH all on bottom vs alternating

What is chitin?

a structural polysaccharide found in exoskeleton of arthropods and the cell walls of many fungi

what is unique about lipids?

the one macromolecule that doesnt include true polymers(unifying feature is that they are hydrophobic)

what are most important lipids?

fats, phospholipids, and steroids

what do fats consist of?

glycerol and fatty acids(function=energy storage)

what functional groups do glycerol and fatty acids consist of?

hydroxyl group and carboxyl group

saturated vs unsaturated

animals/solid room temp/single bonds vs plants/liquid room temp/double bond

What is a phospholipid?

two fatty acids and a phosphate group are attached to glycerol

what are steroids?

categorized by a carbon skeleton consisting of four fused rings

what is cholesterol?

a type of steroid in animal cell membranes and a precursor from which other steroids are synthesized

how much of the drymass of cells does protein account for?

50%

what are protein functions?

defense, storage, transport, cellular communication, movement, structural support

what are polypeptides?

unbranched polymer built from AA

whats a protein?

a functional molecule made of one or more polypeptides

How do aa different in their properties?

differing side chains/r groups

how are amino acids link

covalent bonds called peptide bonds(polypeptides have a c-terminus=carboxyl and n terminus=amino)

secondary structure

alpha helix or beta pleated sheet

tertiary structure

interactions between r groups(every protein reaches here)

quaternary structure

consists of multiple polypeptide chains

what alters protein structure(denaturing)?

pH, salt concentration, temperature, other environmental factors

what does DNA do?

provides directions for its own replication, directs synthesis of mrna(as a result controls protein synthesis)

in rna what does uracil replace?

thymine