BIOCHEMISTRY - The study of the chemistry of living • A carbohydrate usually contains either an

things. aldehyde or ketone functional group and

several alcohol groups.
All living things are made up of four classes of large
• Starch is a carbohydrate polymer composed of
biological molecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins,
glucose units linked together by glycoside
and nucleic acids.
linkages.
These are MACROMOLECULES - large molecules  Monosaccharides
composed of thousands of covalently connected atoms.  Disaccharides
 Monomer – the building block  Polysaccharides
 Polymer – a long molecule consisting of many 3. LIPIDS - is a water-insoluble compound usually
similar building blocks
Biological compounds are often large and complez with
molar masses greater than 1,000,000 g/mol. These large
molecules are polymers of smaller molecules.
1. PROTEINS - a polymer composed of amino acids
• An amino acid has both an amine and a
carboxylic acid functional group. Amino acids composed of an alcohol and one or more carboxylic
are linked together by amide bonds which are acid molecules.
referred to as peptide linkages. • Fats and oils are esters of glycerol, an alcohol
• The machinery of the cell that has three –OH groups.
- Protein functions include structural support, • As a result, each molecule of a fat or an oil
storage, transport, cellular communications, contains three ester groups from three
movement, and defense against foreign carboxylic acid molecules joined to one glycerol
substances molecule.
Examples of Proteins  Saturated, unsaturated, trans fats
 Phospholipids
 Enzymatic proteins – selective acceleration of  Steroids
chemical reactions. Enzymes acts as a catalyst to
speed up chemical reactions. It is donated by the
suffix “-ase”
 Defensive proteins – protection against disease
 Storage proteins – storage of amino acids
 Transport proteins – transport of substances
 Hormonal proteins – coordination of an organism’s
activities
 Receptor proteins – response of cell to chemical
stimuli
 Contractile and motor proteins – movement 4. NUCLEIC ACIDS - is a biochemical polymer
 Structural proteins – support composed of a very large number of individual
units.
2. CARBOHYDRATES - a simple sugar or a polymer • Store, transmit, and express hereditary
composed of simple sugars. information

MAINSTAY REVIEWS-NMAT-CHEMISTRY 1
 • Each unit in the nucleic acid contains a sugar Base-pairing in DNA
molecule attached to an organic nitrogen-
The nitrogenous bases pair with each other through
containing molecule and an attached phosphate
hydrogen bonding – called complementary base-
group.
pairing
• The units are attached together by phosphate
linkages. – Adenine and thymine base-pair with two
• Composed of DNA and RNA hydrogen bonds
- DNA contains a (deoxyribose) sugar- – Guanine and cytosine base-pair with three
phosphate backbone and nucleotides. It is hydrogen bonds
double-stranded and stores genetic
information in the nucleus
- RNA contains a (ribose) sugar-phosphate
backbone and nucleotides. It is single-
stranded and transmits genetic information
from inside the nucleus to outside
• Two types of nitrogenous bases
– Pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, and uracil)
have a single six-membered ring
– Purines (adenine and guanine) have a six-
membered ring fused to a five-membered ring

Structures of sugar-phosphate backbone:

The two backbones run in opposite 5→ 3
directions from each other, an arrangement
referred to as antiparallel

MAINSTAY REVIEWS-NMAT-CHEMISTRY 2