AP Biology

Lipids do not have polymers

- Lipids consist mostly of non-polar hydrocarbons, are hydrophobic
- Examples include fats, phospholipids and steroids.
- Fat is constructer from glycerol and fatty acids
- In making a fat, three fatty acid molecules each join to glycerol by an ester linkage ( a
bond between a hydroxyl group and a carboxyl group)
- Basic unit of fat is then triacylglycerol, (1 glycerol + 3 fatty acids)
- If there are no double bonds b/w carbons of fatty acid, then maximal amount of
hydrogens can bond to the acid hence saturated fat (saturated w/ hydrogen)
- Unsaturated fats have a kink in their geometry wherever cis double bonds occur,
preventing them from compacting close enough to solidify
- Hydrogenated oils are unsaturated fats that have been synthetically saturated with
Hydrogen
- Hydrogenation also produces unsaturated fats w/ trans double bonds called trans fats
- A gram of fat stores twice as much energy as gram of polysaccharide
- Humans and other mammals stock their long-term food reserves in adipose cells, which
swell and shrink as fat is deposited and withdrawn from storage
- Adipose tissue cushions organs and insulates the body
- Phospholipids have only 2 (nonpolar) fatty acids & 1 (polar) phosphate group attached to
glycerol
- Additional charged molecules link to phosphate group to form variety of phospholipids
- Steroids are lipids characterized by a carbon skeleton consisting of four fused rings
- Cholesterol is a steroid in cell membranes & also helps synthesize other steroids
- Many hormones are steroid produced from cholesterol

5.4
- Enzymes are most common proteins - catalyze reactions without being consumed
- Proteins are all constructed from same set of 20 amino acids
- Polypeptides = polymers of amino acids
 - 1 or more polypeptides folded into specific geometries constitute proteins
- Amino acids have amino and carboxyl groups joined to an asymmetric carbon carbon
- The carbon has amino & carboxyl group, hydrogen atom, and variable R group (or side
chain)
- Negatively charged side chains are acidic, positive are basic
- 2 amino acids bond when amino group of one reacts with carboxyl group of the other via
enzymatically catalyzed dehydration reaction.
- ^^^^^^creating a peptide bond
- Many peptide bonds form polypeptide with a C-terminus (carboxyl end) and N-
terminus (Amino end)
- The continuous sequence of the same molecular structure after all the peptide bonds have
been formed is called the peptide backbone
- Frederick Sanger studied insulin
- Protein isnt just polypeptide, but polypeptide(s) conformed into a specific shape
- Polypeptides fold spontaneously via bonds between parts of itself
- Proteins structure divided into: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary
- Denaturation factors such as temperature, pH, and salt concentration of environment
alter the shape of a synthesized protein & makes it biologically inactive
1. When protein moved from aqueous envir. to organic solvent & hydrophobic
regions fold out
2. Chemicals disrupt hydrogen, ionic, and disulfide bridges that maintain protein
shape
3. Excessive heat could agitate polypeptide chain enough to break weak bonds
- Chaperonins - protein molecules that assist the proper folding of other proteins
- X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy aid in
determining protein geometry

5.5
- Each chromosome consists of 1 long DNA molecule that contains hundreds of genes
- One gene on DNA sequence directs the synthesis of mRNA
- Ribosomes are the sites of protein synthesis where the mRNA docks and releases info
- Even prokaryotes (which lack nuclei) use RNA
- Nucleic acids are macromolecules that exist as polymers called polynucleotides
- Each nucleotide is composed of: Nitrogenous base, pentose, and phosphate
- The portion of the group without the phosphate is called nucleoside
- 2 types of nitrogenous bases: Purines & Pyrimidines
- Pyrimidine has 6 membered ring of carbon and nitrogen atoms (which take up H+ from
solution, hence base)
- Cytosine, Thymine, and Uracil are all Pyrimidines
- Purines are larger, with a six-membered ring fused to a five-membered ring (Adenine
and Guanine)
- Thymine is only in DNA & Uracil is only in RNA, rest are in both
- The pentose connected to the nitrogenous base is ribose in the nucleotides of RNA and
deoxyribose in DNA
- We use symbol (prime) to distinguish carbons on the pentose from those on n-base
- Adjacent nucleotides are joined by covalent bonds called phosphodiester linkages
- DNA strand has a built-in directionality along its sugar-phosphate backbone, from 5 to
3
- For DNA, the two sugar-phosphate backbones run in opposite 5 3 directions from
each other, an arrangement referred to as antiparallel
- Both strands held together by hydrogen bonds