2. Molecules of Life Flashcards
(35 cards)
What are the units of polymer?
Monomer
What type of linkage is in carbohydrates?
Glycosidic linkage
What is a monosaccharide and give a few details?
A monosaccharide is a single molecule of carbohydrate. It usually forms in rings and a common example is a glucose.
What are disaccharides?
Disaccharides are two monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic linkage.
What are polysaccharides?
Polysaccharides are more than 2 monosaccharides joined into a bulky molecule with glycosidic linkage.
What are the 2 types of monosaccharides and what distinguishes them?
- Aldoses have C=O at one end
2. Ketoses have C=O in the middle
What is sucrose, lactose and maltose composed of (monosaccarides)? (these 3 carbs are sugars)
Sucrose (glucose+fructose)
Lactose (glucose + galactose)
Maltose (glucose + glucose)
What are examples of types of carbs (5)?
Sugars, glycogen, starch, cellulose, chitin
What is sugar?
Sugar is a type of carbohydrate that is used for immediate energy.
What is glycogen and it’s function, it’s type of linakage and the enzyme that breaks it down?
Glycogen is the energy used for storage in animals, it has 1-4 alpha-glucose linkage, and it is broken down by the enzyme called glycogen phosphorylase (amylase also does it).
What is starch and it’s function, it’s type of linkage and the enzyme that breaks it down?
Starch is a type of carbohydrate that is used as energy storage in plants, it has a 1-4 alpha-glucose linkage, and the enzyme that breaks it down is amalyse.
What is cellulose and it’s function, it’s type of linkage, and the enzyme that breaks it down?
Cellulose is a type of carbohydrate that is used for structural strength in plants, it has a 1-4 beta-glucose linkage, and only a few animals can break it down (cows/termites basically herbivores) enzyme is called cellulase.
What is chitin and it’s function, it’s type of linkage, and the enzyme that breaks it down?
Chitin is a carbohydrate that is used for structural strength in the walls of fungi, it has a 1-4 beta-glucose linkage, and the enzyme that breaks it down is called chitinase.
Describe what lipids are and give 3 examples of them.
Lipids are non-traditional polymers, the bonds between their monomers are ester linkage, they are non-polar and hydrophobic and assembled by the same rxn as carbs. Examples
- Triacylglycerol (fats) -energy storage
- Phospholipids - waterproofing (repel), make up the cell membrane
- Steroids (cell membrane)
What is the chemical difference between alpha and beta glucose?
They are both isomers of each other, the hydroxyl group is flipped. GO LOOK AT VIDS ON RECOGN AND SHAPE
What are the 2 types of triacylglycerol and the difference between them?
Triacylglycerol is made of 1 glycerol and 3 fatty acids.
- Saturated fat: has no C=C double bond and solid at room temp
- Unsaturated fats: has C=C double bonds and liquid at room temperature. They also have less H, usually 2 less.
Why are saturated fats bad?
Because they are solid at room temperature and their fatty acid tails are straight and may interlock with each other.
How to recognize a fatty acid from the chemical formula?
The numbers of carbon and oxygen don’t match.
What are phospholipids?
They are a type of lipid that have hydrophobic/hydrophilic regions, they have 2 tails with phosphate and make up our cell membrane. They are amphipathic molecules.
What are steroids and where are they found?
Steroids are lipids with carbon ring structures, found in cell membranes, cholesterol and hormones.
What are proteins?
They are biomolecules made from the same set of 20 amino acids linked by peptide bonds, there are different categories of them (polar, non-polar, electrically charged)
What are the 4 levels of protein structures and describe them?
- Primary structure= the single chain of amino acid
- Secondary structure = take chains and fold them into alpha-helix and beta-pleated sheets, held together by hydrogen bonds
- Tertiary structure= Take those sheets and interweave them, held together by interactions between hydrophobic and hydrophilic R-groups. As well as hydrogen bonds and disulfide bridges.
4 Quaternary structure= put 2 or more polypeptide chains together.
What is the name of the protein that helps with the folding of other proteins?
Chaperonin
What are the bad conditions for protein structures and what do they cause?
High pH, high temperature and they may cause denaturation. However, renaturation may occur when conditions return to normal.
