1. Chapter 3 The Chemical Building Blocks of Life Trevor Morera, Daniel Guevarra, Fabian Abarca

2. Carbohydrates  Monosaccharides – single sugar that is simple, containing as few as three carbon atoms, but when they play a central role in energy storage, they contain six carbons  C 6 H 12 O 6 is not only the chemical formula for glucose, but for both structural isomers and stereoisomers  Disaccharides (two linked monosaccharides) are effective reservoirs of glucose and serve as transport molecules and provide nutrition in plants and animals, respectively.

3. Carbohydrates (2)  Polysaccharides which are longer polymers made of monosaccharides joined through dehydration reactions  Starch is a storage polysaccharide, consisted of alpha glucose molecules linked in long chains, similarly to cellulose (but with beta glucose)  Chitin, found in shellfish and fungi, is a substituted version of glucose.

4. Lipids  Lipids are hydrophobic molecules (insoluble in water).  Storage fats are all one kind of lipid. Oils, waxes, and some vitamins are also lipids  Fats are complex polymers of fatty acids attached to glycerol  A fat molecule is a triglyceride, containing three fatty acids.  Saturated fats have all carbon atoms in the fatty acid chains bonded to at least two hydrogen atoms, having all the hydrogen atoms possible  Unsaturated fats have fatty acids with double bounds between pairs of successive carbon atoms.

5. Lipids (2)  Monounsaturated fats have one double bond.  Polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond.  Fats are excellent energy-storage molecules  Most fats contain over 40 carbon atoms, ratio of energy storing bonds in fats is more than twice that of carbohydrates  Phospholipids are complex lipids that form the core of all biological membranes, the basic structure of a phospholipid is of three subunits: glycerol, fatty acids, and a phosphate group

6. Nucleic Acids  Nucleic acids are information molecules.  Two main varieties of nucleic acids are DNA and RNA.  DNA encodes genetic information use to assemble proteins.  Nucleic acids can serve as templates to make precise copies of themselves.

7. Nucleic Acids (2)  Nucleic acids are long polymers of nucleotides.  A nucleic acid is basically a chain of five- carbon sugars  RNA is a transcript of a DNA strand  Adenine, a nucleotide, is a key part of ATP, other nucleotides are important in NAD+ and FAD

8. Proteins  Proteins are molecules with diverse structures and functions, composed of polymers of amino acids (an amino group and an acidic carboxyl group)  Protein functions are categorized into the following: enzyme catalysis, defense, transport, support, motion, regulation, and storage  There are 20 different amino acids, with a generalized structure of amino and carboxyl groups bonded to a central carbon atom, with an additional hydrogen and functional side R group  Peptide bonds link amino acids  Levels of structure are: primary (amino acid sequence), secondary (hydrogen bonding patterns), tertiary (folds and link), and quaternary (subunit arrangements)

9. Proteins (2)  Motifs are made from secondary structure elements that combine, fold, or crease  Domains are distinct parts of a protein that make it up  Protein folding relies on chaperone proteins  Improper folding results to diseases  Denaturation causes proteins to become inactive