Exam 1 Flashcards
(46 cards)
What are the properties of life?
-being highly organized
-homeostasis
-reproduction
-growth and development
-transforming energy
-response to stimuli
-adaption to environment
Who is credited for discovering and coining the term “cell”
Robert Hooke
What are the differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes
P = unicellular, absent membrane-bound organelles, DNA in cytoplasm, circular chromosome, binary fission
What four elements compose about 96% of living matter?
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen
What is a cation and an anion
cation = positively charged (ex: sodium)
anion = negatively charged (ex: chloride)
What are the four main groups of large organic molecules in cells
Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids
Why is the carbon atom a versatile building block of molecules
contains four valence electrons, which can form covalent bonds with four other atoms - ultimately being able to form many different molecules
What is hydrolysis
water is consumed as a reactant to break one larger molecule down into two or more new substances (ex: sucrose broken down to glucose and fructose monomers from water)
What is an Anabolic reaction?
building of larger complex molecules from smaller simpler ones
requires an input of energy
EX: formation of glycogen from glucose
What is a Catabolic reaction?
breaks complex molecules down into smaller components
releases energy
EX: cellular respiration (glucose and oxygen react to yield CO2 and water)
Why do cells not really defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics
Cells receive constant input of energy in the form of potential energy in chemical bonds (especially molecules like glucose)
Cells create order at the expense of heat generation - as energy is used, some energy is lost as heat to the environment. This heats up the cell’s surroundings, which adds to disorder
What is a biological example of the first law of thermodynamics
use of energy from sunlight in photosynthesis to be converted into chemical energy and stored in the form of glucose
What are Oxidation and Reduction and what is being oxidized in cellular respiration
Oxidation = loss of electrons
Reduction = gain of electrons
OIL RIG
Glucose is being oxidized in cellular respiration
What are the characteristics of enzymes?
-not consumed by the reaction
-physically bring the reactant together
-destroy chemical bonds
-provide microenvironment in the active site
-noncovalent bond with reactants
What is an example of a medicine that targets enzymes to treat human disease
Gleevec (imatinib)
inhibits the function of the BCR-ABL kinase, being a competitive inhibitor
Why are enzymes called catalysts
they speed up a chemical reaction
Will an exergonic reaction proceed immediately
No
Does spontaneous necessarily mean instantaneous
No - spontaneous refers to naturally occurring, not right away
Why is it beneficial to give someone ethanol if they have been poisoned with methanol
Ethanol will compete against methanol for the active site of Alcohol Dehydrogenase, meaning that it is a competitive inhibitor.
What are the parts of an amino acid’s structure
Amino Group, Carboxyl Group, R Group, Alpha Carbon (central carbon), Hydrogen atom
What is the difference between essential and non-essential amino acids
Essential = body does not produce, must come from diet
Nonessential = body produces
What are the three big categories of amino acids
Non-polar (e.g. leucine, glycine)
Polar (e.g. serine, tyrosine)
Electrically Charged (e.g. aspartic acid, lysine)
What is Primary Structure
-amino acid sequence
What is Secondary Structure?
polypeptides that can form an alpha-helix or beta-sheet
Hydrogen bonds
Can enclose a hydrophilic region of a protein so that the hydrophobic side chains are on the outisd
