1. Biochemistry and Cells
The Building Blocks of Life

2. Stardust
Hydrogen and Helium, the first two elements to be created, are not complex enough to create living things.
It wasn’t until the violent death of stars, supernova, that elements complex enough to create life were formed and scattered across the Universe.
Every molecule in your body is made of the remnants of one of these long dead stars.

3. H2O All living things require water.
Water is vital for many functions of life.
Many of these functions stem from structure of water, an oxygen atom attached to two hydrogen atoms, forming a “v” shape.
The three atoms share electrons unevenly giving oxygen a partial negative charge and the hydrogens a partial positive charge.
Having partial charges is called polarity.

5. Hydrogen Bonding
Opposite charges attract, allowing water to engage in what is called hydrogen bonding with any polar molecule, including itself.
Cohesion- when water is attracted to itself
Adhesion- when water attracts to other substances.
Adhesion allows water to flow upwards through narrow tubes, capillarity

6. Temperature Moderation
Water’s hydrogen bonds keep water from changing it’s temperature quickly.
Energy added to water first needs to break the hydrogen bonds before the molecules can speed up.
Temperature is just a measure of how fast the individual particles of a substance are moving.

8. Carbon
Equally important to life, the molecule carbon can form an immense array of compounds.
Carbon is able to form four bonds with many different compounds.
Carbon compounds can form a variety of shapes
Straight chain
Branched chain
Rings

10. Functional Groups
Carbon typically bonds with hydrogen in organic compounds, hydrocarbons
In place of some hydrogens, special groups of molecules called functional groups, change the properties of the molecule.
Alcohol (-OH) is an important functional group, that joins many carbon compounds to change the properties.
Methanol (methane with an alcohol group) is a deadly poison, while Glycerol is necessary for humans to assemble a number of molecules.

12. Large Carbon Compounds
Living things need large carbon compounds.
In order to make these compounds, often many simple compounds, monomers, are put together to form long chains called polymers
They form by having one molecule losing an alcohol group and one losing a hydrogen, which makes water. Condensation Reaction
Hydrolysis is the opposite of that reaction and involves the breakdown of a polymer by adding water.

14. Energy for Life Two important polymers are ADP and ATP.
Cells take ADP with two phosphate groups and store energy by adding another phosphate groups to make ATP. (condensation)
When the cell needs to use the energy it breaks the bond (hydrolysis) and is back at ADP.

16. Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate are compounds containing C, H, and O in a ration of about 2H for every C and O, basically sugar C6H12O6
Simple carbohydrates are made of one or two molecules of sugar, monosaccharide and disaccharides.
Complex carbohydrates like fiber and starch are many of many sugar compounds assembled into a polymer, polysaccharide

17. Proteins Proteins are polymers that are made of amino acids.
There are 20 amino acids that make up all proteins known to man.
There are around 2050,000 possible proteins
Enzymes are proteins that help chemical reactions in cells take place.

18. Lipids
Are nonpolar organic molecules, which mean they do not dissolve in water.(hydrophobic)
Organism store large amounts of energy using lipids (fat).
Fatty acids are lipids with an end that likes water (hydrophilic)
Phospholipids are composed of two lipid tails attached to a hydrophilic phosphate group
These are important because they assemble themselves to form membranes in water.

21. Nucleic Acids
Nucleic Acids are the most important of all biological compounds.
Living things store and transfer information using nucleic acids in the form of DNA and RNA

23. Cells
Cells were discovered in the late 1600s as the microscope was being invented.
After about 150 years of observation Cell Theory was developed
All living things are composed of one or more cells
Cells are the basic unit of structure and function in an organism
Cells come only from other cells*

25. Cells (cont)
Cells are typically very small to allow chemicals to move around in them quickly.
Some cells, eggs and nerves, are larger.
Cells come in a variety of shapes
Flat
Round
Square
Some don’t have a definite shape.

29. Types of Cells
Simplest organisms, prokaryotes, have simple cells that lack internal structures called organelles.
Bacteria and Archaea
Almost always unicellular (one celled org.)
More complex cells fall into two categories, Plant and Animal, and are called Eukaryotes
We will be examining the animal cell and how the other cells differ.

32. Cell Structures
Eukaryotic cells have many important structures that each have their own functions.
A few of these structures are also present in prokaryotic cells.
The internal structures of Eukaryotic cells are called organelles.

33. Cell Membrane
The cell membrane is made of two layers of phospholipids.
It keeps out some things and lets in others. Selectively Permeable.
Embedded with proteins and carbohydrates that help in cellular interactions.

35. Cytoplasm Cytoplasm is the jelly-like fluid that fills a cell.
The cytoplasm is made of…
Cytosol - fluid
Dissolved salts, minerals, other organic molecules.

36. Cytoskeleton
The cell is supported by a network of connecting threads and tubes that make up the cytoskeleton.
They are both made of protein.
The threads are called microfilaments and the tubes are called microtubules
These structures are the reason the cells in your feet are not popped by the weight of your body.

38. Mitochondria Relatively large organelle, composed of two layers.
Internal has many folds called cristae which increase the surface area.
Site of cellular respiration
Sugar + Oxygen --> CO2 + Water + Energy (ATP)
Mitochondria have their own DNA and reproduce on their own.

41. Ribosomes Most numerous and smallest of organelles
Look like little dots in the cell.
Ribosomes make proteins by reading information from DNA

43. Endoplasmic Reticulum
Also known as ER
Series of interconnected pathways around the nucleus.
Transport chemicals to and from the nucleus.
Smooth ER- no ribosomes
Rough ER- ribosomes

46. Golgi Apparatus
Packages chemicals made from the cell in preparation for secretion.
Membrane of a vesicle gets close to the cell membrane and the two fuse, releasing what’s inside.
Chemicals usual come from the ER

48. Lysosomes
Lysosomes contain digestive enzymes which can do many things.
Digest old organelles, engulfed bacteria, and the cell itself when the cell has outlived its usefulness.

50. Vacuole The vacuole is the organelle responsible for storage.
It can store sugars, lipids, and water.
Found in all plant cells but only some animal cells.
Fat cells have large vacuoles.

52. Centriole
Each cell has two centrioles which separate during cell division in order to organize the cytoskeleton.
Usually they stay together at right angles in what is known as the centrosome.

55. Nucleus The nucleus is the control center of the cell.
Surrounded by the nuclear membrane, which contains pores for getting in and out of the nucleus.
Contains DNA organized into chromosomes

57. Nucleolus
Found the nucleus.
Responsible for making ribosomes.

60. Plant Cells
Plant cells are different from animal cells in three main ways.
Plant cells have a tough outer covering that gives them a permanent shape called a cell wall.
Plants also have chloroplasts.
Plants have very large vacuoles

62. Chloroplasts Chloroplasts are the site of photosynthesis.
Sunlight + CO2 + water --> Sugar + Oxygen
Chloroplasts are not made by the cell as they reproduce on their own.
Like the mitochondria, they have their own DNA.

65. Endosymbiosis
Most scientists believe that the mitochondria and the chloroplasts evolved separately and we engulfed by simple cells.
These simple cells came from bacteria that had begun to organize the cells processes.
The cells provided a safe place to live and the mitochondria and chloroplast provided food and energy for the cell.

66. Prokaryotes
The first cells lacked internal structures, most notably a nucleus.
These cells fall into two groups.
Bacteria- small cells that fill a variety of roles on Earth.
Archaea- are very similar to bacteria but live in extreme places like hot springs or ocean vents.