Wk 10- Introduction to Biochemistry and Clinical Biochemistry

What are the “building blocks” for protein macromolecules?

What are the “building blocks” for polysaccharides?

What are the “building blocks” for nucleic acids?

A nucleotide consists of three things: - A nitrogenous base, which can be either adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine (in the case of RNA, thymine is replaced by uracil). - A five-carbon sugar, called deoxyribose because it is lacking an oxygen group on one of its carbons. - One or more phosphate groups.

What are the “building blocks” for lipid aggregates?

What macromolecule/s can be made up of branched chains?

How many standard amino acids are there?

How do the standard amino acids differ from one another?

Amino acids can be classified according to their R group. Why might it be useful to use this classification? (Hint, might some amino acids with similar R groups have similar properties?)

What does it mean if something is Chiral?

Enantiomers are chiral molecules that are mirror images of one another. Furthermore, the molecules are non-superimposable on one another. This means that the molecules cannot be placed on top of one another and give the same molecule. Chiral molecules with one or more stereocenters can be enantiomers.

What does the L and D in amino acids stand for?

Levorotatory is (of a compound) having the property of rotating the plane of a polarized light ray to the left, i.e. anticlockwise facing the oncoming radiation.

Levorotatory is (of a compound) having the property of rotating the plane of a polarized light ray to the right, i.e. anticlockwise facing the oncoming radiation.

Dextrorotatory (of a compound) is having the property of rotating the plane of a polarized light ray to the right, i.e. clockwise facing the oncoming radiation.

What is a peptide bond?

Explain why amino acids are important.

Select Three examples of important Disaccharides.

How is Diabetes mellitus diagnosed?

Select the Four major roles of Protein.

Give an example of important Monosaccharides

Select three (3) major functions of lipids.

Select Four examples of lipid aggregates.

Select four (4) of the major functions of carbohydrates in a cell

What is Beer ’s Law?

What is Lambert’s Law?

What is the combined Lambert-Beer Law?

Lipids may not be considered true macromolecules because of their structure. Briefly explain.

Can two sugar molecules have different configurations despite having the same molecular formula?

Is it more convenient to use Absorbance or Transmittance to determine the concentration of a substance?

What is the general structure of an amino acid

Explain the term Diabetes mellitus

Spectrophotometers can be used to measure the absorbance of light of a particular wavelength by a certain material. What is meant by the term absorbance?

Why is the selection of optimal analytical wavelength important for spectrophotometric measurement?

List two examples of terms that describe different secondary structures that can be found in proteins.

What is meant by the term 'Protein Primary Structure'

What is meant by the term 'Protein Secondary Structure'

What is meant by the term 'Protein Tertiary Structure'

What is meant by the term 'Protein Quaternary Structure'

A peptide bond is a chemical bond formed between two amino acids

Stereoisomers are isomeric molecules that have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution), but differ in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in space.

A codon is the sequence of 3 consecutive nucleotides on a DNA or RNA strand. It either codes for a specific amino acid in a polypeptide or terminates the polypeptide chain

peptide = less than 50 amino acids in the linear sequence polypeptide or protein = more than 50 amino acids in the linear sequence

Protein Structure [blank_start]Primary structure[blank_end] Linear sequence of amino acids. [blank_start]Secondary structure[blank_end] Backbone of the polypeptide chain folds into regular geometric structures. • α-helix • β-sheet • Turns [blank_start]Tertiary structure[blank_end] Final folded form of the protein. The native form of the protein. [blank_start]Quaternary structure[blank_end] Association of two, or more, polypeptide tertiary structures. e.g.haemoglobin is comprised of two alpha and two beta polypeptide chains

Lipids are composed of relatively simpler smaller molecules and they can form very large structures through non covalent associations

Unsaturated lipids have a double bond

When lipids are placed in an aqueous solvent, they cluster together forming microscopic lipid aggregates. In a lipid aggregate, the hydrophobic component of lipids are in contact with each other, while the polar head groups are in contact with the aqueous solvent.

Carbohydrate– ‘hydrate of carbon ’ Cn H2nOn (where n ≥3)

Oligosaccharides: - 2 to 20 monosaccharides -polysaccharides - ≥20 monosaccharides

Carbohydrate - structure • General name – according to number of carbons eg. trioses, tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, heptoses – according to type: aldose or ketose • Aldoses – aldehyde group in the structure • Ketoses – ketone group in the structure