Chapter 5: the structure and fucntion of large biological molecules Flashcards
All living things are made up of four classes of large biological molecules:
carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids
Within cells, small organic molecules are joined together to form
larger molecules
___ are large molecules composed of thousands of covalently connected atoms
Macromolecules
Molecular structure and function are ___
inseparable
A ___ is a long molecule consisting of many similar building blocks
polymer
A polymer is a long molecule consisting of many similar building blocks These small building-block molecules are called ___
monomers
Three of the four classes of life’s organic molecules are polymers:
Carbohydrates Proteins Nucleic acids
A ___ occurs when two monomers bond together through the loss of a water molecule
dehydration reaction (dehydration synthesis)

Polymers are disassembled to monomers by ___, the addition of a water molecule, a reaction that is essentially the reverse of the dehydration reaction
hydrolysis

Each cell has thousands of different kinds of macromolecules
An immense variety of polymers can be built from a small set of monomers
___ include sugars and the polymers of sugars
Carbohydrates
The simplest carbohydrates are ___, or single sugars
monosaccharides
___ consist of two monosaccharides joined by a dehydration synthesis reaction
Disaccharides
Carbohydrate macromolecules are ___, polymers composed of many monosaccharides (sugar building blocks)
polysaccharides
Monosaccharides have molecular formulas that are usually multiples of CH2O
Glucose (C6H12O6) is the most common monosaccharide. Other examples are fructose and galactose.
Monosaccharides are classified by
The number of carbons in the carbon skeleton
trioses, pentoses, hexoses

Though often drawn as linear skeletons, in aqueous solutions many sugars form rings
Monosaccharides serve as a major fuel for cells and as raw material for building molecules

Two monosaccharides can join to form a disaccharide via dehydration synthesis reaction
This covalent bond is called a ___
glycosidic linkage
Examples of disaccharides include ___
maltose, sucrose and lactose

___ the polymers of sugars (may have a few hundred to a few thousand monosaccharides joined).
These have different functions in the cell:
Storage roles
Structural roles
Polysaccharides,
___, a storage polysaccharide of plants, consists entirely of glucose monomers
Starch
___ is a storage polysaccharide in animals
Humans and other vertebrates store glycogen mainly in liver and muscle cells
Glycogen
The polysaccharide ___ is a major component of the tough wall of plant cells
Like starch, cellulose is a polymer of glucose, but the glycosidic linkages differ
cellulose
Enzymes that digest starch can’t ___ cellulose
hydrolyze



