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BIOCHEMISTRY: CARBOHYDRATES, PROTEINS, DNA & LIPIDS

BIOCHEMICAL MOLECULES

CARBOHYDRATES PROTEINS NUCLEIC ACIDS LIPIDS

A SIMPLE SUGAR A POLYMER A POLYMER A FAT, OIL, WAX

OR POLYMER COMPOSED OF COMPOSED OF A PHOSPHOLIPID
COMPOSED OF AMINO ACIDS SUGAR, AN OR STEROID
SIMPLE SUGARS ORGANIC BASE &
PHOSPHATE

CARBOHYDRATES:
function: major source of short term energy from our diet

foods: breads, fruits, vegetables

Monosaccharides- simple sugars
Monosaccharides contain 3-6 carbons:
3 C's triose, 4 C's tetrose, 5 C's pentose, 6 C's hexose

aldoses - a monosaccharide with an aldehyde group & several hydroxyl groups

(glucose, galactose)

ketoses - a monosaccharide with a ketone group & several hydroxyl groups

(fructose)
CHIRALITY AND D,L DESIGNATION
Chiral C - a carbon that has 4 different groups attached
Chiral compound - a compound containing a chiral C
• Chiral compounds have mirror images

D, L tells which of the 2 optical isomers we are referring to

• If the OH group on the next to bottom C points to the right, it is the D
isomer; if it points to the left it is the L isomer
• D isomer is usually the one found in nature
Monosaccharides with 5 or 6 carbons usually exist in a cyclic form. The OH group
on C-5 reacts with the aldehyde or ketone carbonyl group.

Disaccharides - 2 or more monosaccharides held together by glycosidic bond

o
SUGAR SUGAR

maltose: Malt sugar contains 2 glucose units

lactose: Milk sugar contains galactose and glucose

sucrose: Cane sugar contains fructose and glucose

Polysaccharides- hundreds or thousands of monosaccharides bonded together

glycogen - animals use glycogen as reserve supply of glucose

starch (mixture of amylose & amylopectic) - plants store food as starch

cellulose - plants use cellulose for structural parts

PROTEINS
a large polypeptide containing hundreds- thousands of amino acids

Functions of different proteins: Enzymes, transporters of molecules & ions,

messengers, antibodies, storage, body regulators (e.g. growth), structural
support (e.g. hair, muscle tissue, bone, collagen).

foods: meat, fish, poultry, cheese and milk products

amino acid has amine group and carboxylic acid group (20 amino acids)

amino acids are linked to one another via an amide bond

O
||
CNH
amino acid amino acid

8 amino acids are essential to diet (not synthesized in body)

LIPIDS: FATS, OILS, WAXES OR STEROIDS
function: used for long term storage of food - gives off 2-3 times as much
energy as carbohydrates, biological membranes, steroids
• lipids are not water soluble
foods: vegetable oils, margarine, animal fat, milk products

fatty acid is carboxylic acid with a long hydrocarbon chain

glycerol: HO-CH2CHCH2-OH
|
OH
triglyceride is a fat or oil in which an ester is formed from glycerol and 3 fatty
acids g fatty acid
l
y
c fatty acid
e
r
o
l fatty acid

animal fat contains mostly saturated fatty acids

vegetable oil contains mostly unsaturated fatty acids
phospholipid contains glycerol, fatty acid, phosphate and amino alcohol
wax: fatty acid combined with long chain alcohol
steroid: contains four 4 fused carbon rings e.g. chlosterol

NUCLEIC ACIDS - DNA, RNA

function: store and direct information for cellular growth and reproduction
DNA - contains all information needed for development of living system
RNA - carries genetic information from DNA to the ribosomes.
• Both are polymers of nucleotide units DNA - several million nucleotides;
RNA - several thousand nucleotide units
• nucleotide contains phosphate group, 5 C sugar and organic base

O- base
|
O=P-O-CH2
|
O-
sugar

base can be adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, uracil

sugar is ribose or deoxyribose
BIOCHEMICAL WEBLINKS

Carbohydrates - PP presentation by Timberlake

Introduction to Biochemistry - Logan
Structures & Functions of sugars, lipids & DNA - MIT hyper textbook
Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins & nucleic acids - PP presentations by Hardy at U of Akron
Amino Acid Anatomy - John Kyrk at Sirius
Images of biological molecules - U of Kansas