AP Biology Summer Work: The Chemistry of Life

This flashcard set covers the basic chemistry of life, water properties, macromolecules, and the Hershey-Chase experiment as outlined in the AP Biology summer review packet.

Covalent bond (in water)

The type of chemical bond that holds the hydrogen and oxygen atoms together within a single water molecule.

Hydrogen bond

A weak attraction that forms between the partial positive charge of a hydrogen atom in one water molecule and the partial negative charge of an oxygen atom in another water molecule.

Cohesion

The property of water molecules sticking to each other, which causes water to form a bubble or dome-like shape on a surface instead of spreading flat.

Adhesion

The property of water that allows it to travel through vascular tissue from the roots to the leaves of a plant by sticking to the tissue walls and moving against gravity.

High heat capacity

The property of water that explains why the climate near an ocean is more stable and resistant to temperature extremes than the climate far from an ocean.

High heat of vaporization

The property of water that allows humans to cool down through the process of sweating.

Four main elements of life

The four elements that make up approximately $96\%$ of living things by mass: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen.

Bacteriophages

Viruses that infect bacteria by injecting a substance that hijacks the cells to produce more viruses; used in the experiment by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase.

Radioactive phosphorus

The substance used by Hershey and Chase to label DNA in bacteriophages to determine if nucleic acids changed the phenotype of bacterial cells.

Radioactive sulfur

The substance used by Hershey and Chase to label proteins in bacteriophages during their 1950s experiment.

Dehydration synthesis

An endothermic chemical process that joins monomers into a polymer by removing a water molecule.

Hydrolysis

An exothermic chemical process that breaks a polymer into monomers by adding a water molecule.

Phospholipid bilayer

The structural component of a cell membrane composed of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids that interacts with water both inside and outside the cell.

Tertiary structure

The three-dimensional folded shape of a protein created by intramolecular bonds such as hydrophobic interactions, ionic bonds, disulfide bridges, and hydrogen bonds.

Purines and Pyrimidines

The two classes of nitrogenous bases in DNA that always pair together to maintain the double-stranded structure.

Primary structure

The sequence or chain of amino acids linked together in a protein, before it folds into its secondary or tertiary shapes.

OpenStax Biology 2e

The online textbook used for the AP Biology course, specifically Chapters 2 and 3 for the chemistry of life and biological macromolecules.