Biological molecules

By Ms B
 INTRODUCTION
 All living things are made up of 4 classes of large
biological molecules (chemical compounds that naturally
occur in organisms). Such giant molecules are known as
macromolecules. (large molecules composed of
covalently connected atoms)
 Carbohydrates
 Lipids
 Proteins
 Nucleic acid
 NOTE: all four structures are organic molecules.
Organic building blocks

 The four organic molecules always contain elements of:

 Carbon
 Hydrogen
 Oxygen
 Proteins in addition to the 3 elements, they also contain
Nitrogen and sometimes sulfur.
 Nucleic acid always contains;
 C, H, O, N, P
 .

 Most macromolecules are polymers, produced by linking small

organic compounds or sub-units called monomers.
 A polymer is a long molecule consisting of many chains or rings of
linked repeating subunits.(building blocks)
 A monomer is a small molecule which may be linked with another
small molecule in a repeating manner to form a complex molecule.
 The thousands of different complex organic compounds present in
organisms are constructed from about 40 small, simple monomers.
 For example, the 20 monomers called amino acids can be linked end
to end in countless ways to form the polymers known as proteins.
 polysaccharides
sugars polysaccharides

Fatty acids Fats,lipids,

Fats,lipids,
Fatty acids membranes
membranes

Amino acids Proteins

Nucleotides Nucleic acids

 Anabolism and catabolism of polymers
 This is ensured by 2 reactions ; dehydration synthesis or
condensation and hydrolysis.

 Dehydration synthesis/condensation is a reaction in which two

monomers combine to form a single molecule (polymer) through
the loss of a small molecule. (usually a water molecule).

 Hydrolysis is a reaction in which two bonded

monomers(polymer) are degraded through the addition of a water
molecule.
Example
 In biological systems the synthesis of a polymer is not
simply the reverse of hydrolysis, even though the net
effect is the opposite of hydrolysis.

 Synthetic processes such as condensation require energy

and are regulated by different enzymes.
THANK YOU