1. What are living creatures made of? Why do we have to eat?
The Chemistry of Life
What are living creatures made of? Why do we have to eat?

2. Molecules of Life
Put C, H, O, N together in different ways to build living organisms
What are bodies made of?
carbohydrates
sugars & starches
proteins
fats (lipids)
nucleic acids
DNA, RNA

3. ATP Why do we eat? We eat to take in more of these chemicals
Food for building materials
to make more of us (cells)
for growth
for repair
Food to make energy
calories
to make ATP
ATP

4. How do we make these molecules?
We build them!

5. Building large molecules of life
Chain together smaller molecules
building block molecules = monomers
Big molecules built from little molecules
polymers

6. Building large organic molecules
Small molecules = building blocks
Bond them together = polymers

7. Building important polymers
Carbohydrates = built from sugars
sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar
Proteins = built from amino acids
amino
acid –
Nucleic acids (DNA) = built from nucleotides
nucleotide – nucleotide – nucleotide – nucleotide

8. How to build large molecules
Synthesis
building bigger molecules from smaller molecules
building cells & bodies
repair
growth
reproduction +
ATP

9. You gotta be open to “bonding!
How to build a polymer
You gotta be open to “bonding!
Synthesis
joins monomers by “taking” H2O out
one monomer donates OH–
other monomer donates H+
together these form H2O
requires energy & enzymes
H2O HO H
enzyme
Dehydration synthesis
Condensation reaction

10. How to take large molecules apart
Digestion
taking big molecules apart
getting raw materials
for synthesis & growth
making energy (ATP)
for synthesis, growth & everyday functions +
ATP

11. How to break down a polymer
Breaking up is hard to do!
Digestion
use H2O to breakdown polymers
reverse of dehydration synthesis
cleave off one monomer at a time
H2O is split into H+ and OH–
H+ & OH– attach to ends
requires enzymes
releases energy
H2O HO H
enzyme
Most macromolecules are polymers
• build:
condensation (dehydration) reaction
• breakdown:
hydrolysis
An immense variety of polymers can be built from a small set of monomers
Hydrolysis
Digestion

12. Example of digestion starch glucose Starch is digested to glucose ATP

13. amino acids = building block
Example of synthesis
amino acids
protein
Proteins are synthesized by bonding amino acids
amino acids = building block
protein = polymer

14. Any Questions?
Penguins gone bad!