Saturday, November 10, 2007

Building Blocks of Life



Carbohydrates- function for short-term energy storage
Lipids-function for long-term energy storage, insulate, and are used in the construction of cell membranes.
Proteins- function to build body structures and regulate metabolism
Nucleic Acids – compose all of your genetic material, including DNA and RNA.


All life is built on carbon. There are four major groups of carbon compounds that are important carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. A carbon atom is made up of four covalent bonds, and is a stable. Hydrocarbons are stable, and non-polar. As well as hydrophobic which is hydro = water, and phobic = fearful. This means the molecules are not attracted, and are not as close making it a gas. The writing on this picture is really annoying, but I couldn’t find one without it.






Isomers- molecules with the same formula but are different in shape. Each of these diagrams has four carbons, but different chemical properties and biological functions. The structure does have an affect by creating different functions. For example medicine in L-version is active, and D-version is not. So structure does have a significant role.


-Organic compounds with OH are alcohols.
-C=O at end of molecule is an aldehyde, and C=O in the middle is a ketone.
-COOH is an acid.
-N attached to 2 H is amines it acts as the base.
-SH is thios, and it stabilizes the structure of proteins.
-P bonded to 4 O is highly reactive and transfers energy between ATP and GTP.

Monomers link together to create polymers. In synthesis water is taken out, and in digestion water is used to break down polymers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRhEF91Zh8

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