Biological Molecules

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Carbohydrates

  • Carbohydrates are polymers, their monomers are monosaccharides
  • Sucrose -> glucose + fructose  //  Maltose -> glucose + glucose  //  Lactose-> glucose + galactose
  • Condensation joins monomers together to form a glycosidic bond
  • Hydrolysis breaks the bond by adding water
  • Alpha glucose is spiralled amylose and branched amylopectin
  •             - Compact for storage
  •             - Ready hydrolysis
  •             - Insoluble
  •             - starch/glycogen
  • Beta glucose is an isomer, hydroxyl group on carbon 1 is on top instead of on bottom
  •            - Cellulose
  •            - Strong due to hydrogen bonds and branched, alternating chains
  • Benedict's test for reducing sugars is adding benedicts reagent and heating blue -> brick red +++
  • Non reducing sugars = Add hydrochloric acid and heat, add sodium hydrogencarbonate to neutralise. Same as reducing sugars hereafter
  • Starch test = add iodine in potassium iodide so will turn from brown to blue/ black +++
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Lipids

  • Triglycerides contains glycerol head and three fatty acid tails
  • Phospohlipid (used in membranes) has 2 hydrophobic fatty acid tails and a hydrophilic glycerol and phosphate group head.
  • glycerol joined to fatty acids by ester bonds. (condensation)
  • Saturated = no double bonds = no kinks = solid
  • Unsaturated = double bonds = kinks = liquid
  • Emulsion test for lipids
  •            -Crush sample
  •            - Shake with ethanol to dissolve
  •            - Add water to form an emulsion
  •            - Cloudy white emulsion +++
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Proteins

  • Contain amine (NH3) group, carbon with R group and hydrogen molecule, and carboxylic acid group (C=O-OH)
  • Amino acids = monomer joined together by peptide bonds
  • Test for proteins = buiret test
  •            Add sodium hydroxide solution
  •           Add copper sulphate
  •           Positive = blue to purple
  • Primary structure = sequence of amino acid
  • Secondary structure = Alpha helixes and beta pleated sheets 
  • Tertiary structure = Folding of polypeptide chain by formation of hydrogen, ionic, or disulphide bonds
  • Quaternary structure = more than one polypeptide chain with prothetic groups (like haem in haemoglobin)
  • Proteins can be transport (haemoglobin), immunological ( antibodies), signalling (hormones), structural (collagen)
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Enzymes

  • Enzymes are biological catalysts - they speed up reactions by lowering activation energy of reaction by putting strains on bonds
  • Tertiary or quaternary proteins with active site complementary to substrate
  • Through random collisions, active site binds with complementary substrate - active site moulds around substrate putting strain on bond. Causes breaking of bonds. No longer complementary, so products pull away
  • pH = optimum then ions cause disruptions in ionic bonds
  • Temperature = optimum, too low then not enough KE, too fast then denature
  • Substrate concentration = increase then plateaus when substrate outnumbers enzyme
  • Enzyme concentration = increase product directly until substrate runs out
  • Competitive inhibition:
  •         - inhibitor bind to active site, stops substrate binding
  •         - substrate will eventually get to bind.
  • Non competitive inhibition:
  •         - inhibitor binds to active site, changing shap of active site so no longer complementary
  •         - permanent
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DNA and RNA

  • DNA made up of deoxyribose sugar (pentose)/phosphate group/nitrogenous base
  • RNA is the same but only ribose sugar and instead of thymine, uracil
  • Bases = Adenine/Thymine - form double bonds  //  Cytosine/guanine - Form triple bonds
  • Monomer = nucleotide
  • Join to form polymer in condensation, forming phosphodiester bonds
  • Semi conservative replication proved by Meselston and Stahl by light and heavy nitrogen
  •           - DNA helicase breaks hydrogen bonds between bases
  •           - original strands used as template for complementary base pairing
  •          - DNA polymerise joins nucleotides of new strands together and hydrogen bonds form
  •          - New strand contains half original DNA and half new DNA
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Water

  • Strong cohesion/adhesion - water molecules stick to each other and to mediums easilyy, allows it to flow which is good for transport, such as up xylem.
  •             -This means it has a high surface tension
  • High Latent heat of vaporisation - takes a lot of energy to evaporate
  •            - Good for sweating as it removes a lot of heat energy
  • High specific heat capacity - lots of energy required to raise temp by 1 degrees celcius
  •            - good as water dwelling creatures don't suffer huge temperature changes
  • It is a metabolite, so it can be used in condensation and hydrolysis
  • It is polar so is a good solvent
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ATP and inorganic ions

  • ATP produced in respiration
  • Made up of adenine and a ribose sugar and three phosphate groups
  • It can be hydrolysed by ATP hydrolase in dephosphorylation to produce adenosineine diphosphate and an inorganic phosphate ion and energy
  • Vice versa done by ATP synthase and is phosphorylation
  • inorganic ion is an ion that doesn't contain carbon
  • e.g.
  •        - iron ions in haemoglobin
  •        - sodium ions for co transport
  •        - hydrogen ions in acid
  •        - hydroxide ions in alkali
  •        - phosphate ions produced from ATP 
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