The Exciting World of Organic Compounds

To be or not to be… organic Organic compounds contain both carbon and hydrogen For example, glucose (C6H12O6) is organic Why? Inorganic compounds are lacking carbon, hydrogen or both Water, oxygen and carbon dioxide are all inorganic compounds

Important Macromolecules Macromolecules are large molecules The four major types of organic compounds we will discuss are all macromolecules Proteins Carbohydrates Lipids Nucleic acids They are also all polymers (long chains of repeating units) composed of monomers

Proteins Polymers of amino acids 20 different amino acids with the same backbone of functional groups Functional groups Amino group Carboxyl group Radical group ( R ) distinguishes one amino acid from the next

20 Amino Acids

How to make a polypeptide? Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins They connect by forming a peptide bond The carboxyl group of one connects with the amino group of the adjacent amino acid A molecule of water is removed to make this possible in a process known as dehydration synthesis Proteins are digested in a process known as hydrolysis, where water is added

Carbohydrates Polymers of saccharides Monosaccharides= one saccharide and are considered a carbohydrate in themselves Examples include glucose, fructose and galactose All have the same chemical formula of C6H12O6 so how are they different?

Carbohydrates- Disaccharides Carbohydrates consisting of two monosaccharides Maltose and sucrose are two common examples How are these disaccharides formed?

Carbohydrates- Polysaccharides What does poly mean? (think of a polygon or what a polymer is) Glycogen, starch and cellulose are some common polysaccharides How are they formed? Glycogen is a polysaccharide found in animals (how we store extra glucose in our liver) Starch is a polysaccharide found in plants (how they store glucose) Cellulose is a polysaccharide that composes the cell walls of plants Chitin is a polysaccharide found in some bacterial cells and in the exoskeleton of arthropods

Lipids Polymer consisting of hydrocarbon monomers Hydrocarbons are hydrophobic (water-fearing) Triglycerides, phospholipids and cholesterol are some common lipids Triglycerides are composed of three fatty acids bonded to a glycerol molecule

Lipids Phospholipids: Similar to triglycerides One fatty acid chain is replaced with a phosphate group Compose cell membrane

Lipids- Cholesterol A unique lipid as it is not made out of hydrocarbon chains, but rather hydrocarbon rings Only found in animal cells Part of cell membrane along with phosopholipids All steroids such as estrogen and testosterone are actually derived from cholesterol

Nucleic Acids Acidic macromolecules found in the nucleus in addition to the mitochondria and chloroplast They are polymers consisting of nucleotides A nucleotide consists of three parts: a phosphate group, a sugar and a nitrogen base They carry the genetic code in the sequence of the nitrogen bases

Nucleic Acids DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) RNA (ribonucleic acid) Has the sugar deoxyribose Nitrogen bases are adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine Double-stranded RNA (ribonucleic acid) Has the sugar ribose Nitrogen bases are adenine, uracil, cytosine and guanine Single stranded