CHEM 210: Introductory Biochemistry

Lecture 2
THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF LIFE

Stephen G. Sabinay
Instructor
Physical Sciences Department
West Visayas State University

Do living systems obey the laws of thermodynamics?

Haemophilus influenzae

The first free-living organisms to be fully

sequenced
No physical gene map existed
Genome size of ~1.8 Mbp is typical among
bacteria

Genome map

What is BIOCHEMISTRY?
seeks to explain life at
the molecular level
traditionally a
reductionism
focus on the structure
and function of
molecules

Elements found in biological molecules

Common functional group and linkages in Biochemistry

[Sample Problem]
1. Identify the functional groups in the following molecules:
Carboxylate

Carboxyl
Carbonyl

Amino
Hydroxyl

Amido

Cells contain four types of biomolecules

Sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and nucleotides are the four main families of small organic
molecules in cells. The form the monomeric building blocks for larger organic molecules, including
most of the macromolecules and other molecular assemblies of the cell.

1. Amino acids

Amino group
Carboxylic acid group

Simplest compounds

Variety of 20 amino acids

Contains amino group (-NH2), carboxylic acid group (-COOH) and side chain
or R group
Under physiological conditions these groups are ionized
Polypeptides or proteins are held together by peptide bonds

2. Carbohydrates

Glycosidic bond

Composed primarily of C, H, and O

Have the formula (CH2O)n, where n is 3
Polysaccharides contain one or several types of monosaccharide held
together by glycosidic bonds

3. Nucleotides

Consists of a five carbon sugar, nitrogenous base and a phosphate group

Most common nucleotides are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), thymine (T) and
uracil (U)
Polynucleotides or nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) are held together by phosphodiester
bonds

4. Lipids

Highly diverse thus, cannot be described by a single structural formula

Poorly soluble in water
Do not form polymers but aggregate to form larger structures

Biological polymers

Several building blocks can be combined to produce a larger structures

Monomers covalently linked in head-to-tail fashion

Energy and Metabolism

Cells require energy for living, growing and reproducing

Living organisms obey the laws of thermodynamics

1st Law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can be
transformed.

Gibbs free energy is most relevant to biochemical

systems
Enthalpy (H, J.mol-1) is the heat content of the system
Entropy (S, J.K-1.mol-1) is a measure of how energy is dispersed
within the system; a measure of disorder
G must be negative for a reaction to occur spontaneously

Important equations
Free energy = Enthalpy T(Entropy)

More practical equation

Note that
when

, release heat
, absorbs heat
, spontaneous

[Sample Problem]

[Sample Problem]