Molecular Biology

Carbon Molecules
1. Carbohydrates
  1. contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
  2. commonly ring shaped molecules
  3. it's building block is a simple sugar.
2. Lipids
  1. insoluable in water, but soluable in non-polar organic solvents
  2. It's building block is a fatty acid.
  3. Fats used for energy storage are in the adipose tissue (under skin and surrounding organs).
  4. Lipids have less mass than carbs and create double the amount of energy, but energy stored by glycogen is more readily avaliable.
  5. Lipids are the main component of cell membranes, they are part of hormone signaling, fats insulate heat in animals, and form tissue around internal organs.
3. Proteins
  1. contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen
  2. made up of amino acids
4. Nucleic Acids
  1. contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorous
  2. two types include dna and rna
Biochemicals
1. Monosaccharides
  1. glucose: fuels respiration (found in plants & animals) ribose: used to make up lactose (found in milk) fructose: sweetener of fruits (found in fruit) galactose: forms backbone of RNA (found in nucleic acids)
2. Fatty Acids
  2. 1. Trans fat/saturated fatty acid - CHD
      1. Coronary heart disease is caused by blocked coronary arteries by fatty deposits cause blood clots and heart attacks.
      2. There is a positive correlation with saturated fatty acid intake and CHD rates, but correlation isn't causation.
      3. On the other hand, evidence that a patient dead from CHD had the fatty deposits blocking the artery highly concentrated of trans fat.
    2. Unsaturated fatty acids
      1. cis-isomers: common in nature; H atoms are on the same side as 2 C atoms; a bend in the chain causing loose packing
      2. trans-isomers: rare in nature, H atoms are on the opposite side of 2 C atoms, straight chain causing tight packing
  3. Triglyceride
3. Amino Acids
4. Dissaccharides
  1. maltose (plants): glucose + glucose - in beer; lactose (animals): glucose + galactose - in milk; sucrose (plants): glucose + fructose - in table sugar
5. Polysaccharides
  1. cellulose: beta glucose, 1-4 C atom, found in plant cell walls to support and strengthen them; glycogen: alpha glucose, 1-4/1-6 C atom, store glucose as energy in liver and muscles of animals; starch i.e. amylopectin: alpha glucose, 1-4/1-6 C atom and amylose: alpha glucose, 1-4 C atom (both to store energy in plants)
Molecular Reactions
1. Condensation removes./releases water making bonds as in anabolic reactions using the enzyme synthase.
2. Hydrolysis adds.splits water breaking bonds as in catabolic reactions using the enzyme hydrolase.
Urea is a nitrogenous waste product. Wöhler accidentally synthesized urea while attempting to prepare ammonium cyanate. He mixed cyanic acid and ammonium. By this he falsified the idea that organic compounds could come inorganic compounds.
Water
2. Properties
  1. Cohesive: weak H bond give water strong cohesive forces causing water molecules to stick together which makes the molecules resistant to objects penetrating the surface i.e. surface tension.
  2. Adhesion: water molecules stick to other charged or polar molecules.
  3. Thermal: high specific heat which makes it difficult to change the temperature of the water and high heat of vaporisation which causes difficulty in changing the state of the water.
  4. Solvent: positive atoms are attracted to the negative oxygen region while negative atoms are attracted to the positive hydrogen region meaning water can dissolve substances with polar and charged regions.
3. Hydrophobic substances are those that are nonpolar and therefore don't dissolve in water.
4. Hydrophillic substances are those that are polar, are attracted to water, and dissolve in it.
Transport of biochemicals in the blood

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	Created by Fadila Farag over 9 years ago