Study guide: Biomolecules Study Guide

📋 Course Outline

1. Biomolecule Classes and Functions
2. Monomers and Polymers
3. Carbohydrates and Lipids
4. Proteins and Peptide Bonds
5. Nucleic Acids and Nucleotides
6. DNA and RNA Comparison
7. Synthesis, Hydrolysis, and Organic Compounds

📖 1. Biomolecule Classes and Functions

📝 Essential Points

• The four major biomolecules are:
  • carbohydrates
  • lipids
  • proteins
  • nucleic acids

📌 Carbohydrates provide short-term energy and structure, lipids provide long-term energy, warmth, and cushioning, proteins support muscles, the immune system, and enzymes, and nucleic acids store genetic information used to build proteins.

• Carbohydrates and lipids contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; proteins contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; and nucleic acids contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

💡 Memory Hook

CLPN: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids

📖 2. Monomers and Polymers

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Monomer: a single building block that makes up a larger molecule
• Polymer: made of many monomers joined together

📝 Essential Points

• The key building-block relationships are:
  • monosaccharide to polysaccharide
  • amino acid to polypeptide
  • nucleotide to nucleic acid
  • fatty acids plus glycerol to triglyceride

💡 Memory Hook

A single LEGO brick becomes a polymer when many bricks join together.

📖 3. Carbohydrates and Lipids

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Carbohydrates: biomolecules used for short-term energy and structure
• Lipids: biomolecules used for long-term energy storage, warmth, and cushioning

★ Must-know

• Carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a carbon-to-hydrogen-to-oxygen ratio of 1:2:1.

• The monosaccharides are:

  • glucose
  • fructose
  • galactose

• A triglyceride is made of three fatty acids and one glycerol, and triglycerides include fats and oils.

📌 Saturated fatty acids have single covalent bonds between carbon atoms, whereas unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double covalent bonds between carbon atoms.

Further detail

• The main types of lipids are:
  • triglycerides
  • phospholipids
  • steroids
  • waxes

💡 Memory Hook

Carbohydrates provide short-term energy, whereas lipids store long-term energy and provide warmth and cushioning.

📖 4. Proteins and Peptide Bonds

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Proteins: biomolecules that help develop muscles, support the immune system, and act as enzymes
• Polypeptide: a chain of amino acids joined together by peptide bonds

📝 Essential Points

• Proteins contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and their monomer is the amino acid.

• Peptide bonds join amino acids together.

• The 20 amino acids used to build human proteins differ only in their R group.

💡 Memory Hook

Amino acids join through peptide bonds → polypeptides form → proteins support muscles, immunity, and enzymes.

📖 5. Nucleic Acids and Nucleotides

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Nucleic Acids: store genetic information that tells cells how to build proteins

📝 Essential Points

• Nucleic acids contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and their monomer is the nucleotide.

• The three parts of a nucleotide are:

  • sugar
  • phosphate
  • nitrogen base

💡 Memory Hook

Sugar + phosphate + nitrogen base → nucleotide → nucleic acid

📖 6. DNA and RNA Comparison

📝 Essential Points

📌 DNA has two strands, deoxyribose sugar, and the bases adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, whereas RNA has one strand, ribose sugar, and the bases adenine, thymine, guanine, and uracil.

• DNA base pairs are adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine, written A-T and G-C.

• RNA base pairs according to the course are adenine with thymine and guanine with uracil, written A-T and G-U.

💡 Memory Hook

DNA is double-stranded with deoxyribose, whereas RNA is single-stranded with ribose.

📖 7. Synthesis, Hydrolysis, and Organic Compounds

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Organic Compound: contains carbon

📝 Essential Points

• Dehydration synthesis joins monomers to form polymers by removing water.

• Hydrolysis breaks polymers down into monomers when water is added.

💡 Memory Hook

Dehydration builds polymers, whereas hydrolysis breaks polymers using water.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Biomolecule Comparison

Biomolecule	Building blocks or monomer	Polymer or main molecule	Main function
Carbohydrates	Monosaccharides	Polysaccharides	Short-term energy and structure
Lipids	Fatty acids and glycerol	Triglycerides	Long-term energy, warmth, and cushioning
Proteins	Amino acids	Polypeptides	Muscles, immune system, and enzymes
Nucleic acids	Nucleotides	Nucleic acids	Genetic information

DNA and RNA Comparison

Feature	DNA	RNA
Strands	2	1
Sugar	Deoxyribose	Ribose
Bases	A, T, G, C	A, T, G, U
Base pairs	A-T, G-C	A-T, G-U