Bio 151: Chapter 5 Worksheet

Here is a list containing monomers and polymers. Please write M next to the ones that are monomers and P
next to the ones that are polymers. Then, draw a line in between the monomer and the polymer that it
becomes when linked together.

Amino Acids M
Polysaccharides P
Nucleic Acids P
Protein P
Simple sugars M
Nucleotides M

Why are polymerization reactions called “condensation” reactions?

Draw a picture of one here.
Its a reaction in which two molecules combine to form a single molecule. A small molecule, often water, is usually removed during a
condensation reaction. Amino acids are important biological molecules that have an amine functional group on one end of the molecule
and a carboxylic acid functional group on the other end. When two amino acids combine in a condensation reaction, a covalent bond
forms between the amine nitrogen of one amino acid and the carboxyl carbon of the second amino acid. A molecule of water is then
removed as a second product.

Is energy required for these reactions?

Here is a picture of a nucleotide. The sugar portion of this molecule is shown in orange.
Please label the 5 carbons of the sugar with their appropriate numerical symbols (e.g. 1’, 2’., 3’, etc..)
Which structure represents the nitrogen containing base? Label it (please).
Which structure represents the phosphate group? Label it (please).

Please answer the following questions with the numbers 1’, or 2’ or 3’, or 4’, or 5’.
 i) Which of these carbon positions binds (or doesn’t bind) a hydroxyl group and thus determines if
the sugar will be ribose or deoxyribise?
ii) Which of these carbons is bound to a nitrogen containing base?
iii) Which of these carbons is bound to a phosphate group?

Label the following polysaccharides as playing a structural role or for energy storage. Please also indicate if
they are found in plants or animals.

Cellulose:

Starch:

Glychogen:

The nitrogen containing bases of nucleotides can be classified as purines (double ring structures) and
pyrimidines (single ring structures). Of the following list, which are purines and which are pyrimidines?

Adenine
Thymine
Cytosine
Uracil
Guanine

Of the nitrogen bases named above, which is found in DNA, but not RNA?
Which is found in RNA, but not DNA?

DNA, a nucleic acid, is made up of two chains of polymerized nucleotides that are connected by hydrogen
bonds in the middle of the two chains where the nitrogen bases meet up. Erwin Chargaff determined that
there was specific base pairing between the nitrogen bases, called “complementary base pairing”.
Which bases did he find bound to which other bases in DNA?

Have someone in your group draw a double stranded piece of DNA like the one shown below. Use the
appropriate letters A, C, G, T or U to fill in the correct nitrogen base of the nucleotides in the complementary
strand.
OH-

HO-

Which of these letters did you NOT use? Why?

The diagram below shows a fat molecule. Please accurately label where the glycerol component of the
molecule is and the fatty acid components are.
What is the difference between a saturated and an unsaturated fatty acid?
Below is a picture of a triglyceride fat. Please label where you see a saturated fat, a mono-unsaturated fat and
a polyunsaturated fat.

Which of these fatty acid chains would you expect to be straight, which would you expect to be bent? Why?

Please draw a picture of a phospholipid showing the head region and the tail region. What do you know about
those two regions that make them behave differently from each other?
PHOSPHOLIPID

Now draw a picture of a phospholipid bilayer indicating where you would see the heads of the phospholipids
and where you would see the tails.
PHOSPHOLIPID BILAYER

Do all proteins perform the same kinds of jobs? If yes, what job do they perform? If no, can you and your
group come up with several different jobs that proteins perform?

What 4 groups surround the central carbon of an amino acid?

1.
2.
3.
4.
Please draw them on the carbon shown here.
What do we mean by the term “the primary structure” of a protein?

What two shapes make up the secondary structure of proteins?