ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to express my sincere thanks to my respected principal

ma’am and my chemistry teacher Mrs. Meena Mamgain for giving
me the opportunity to research on the topic “BIOMOLECULES”
and it has been my pleasure doing so. This has added many points to
my knowledge about chemistry and its practical application. I would
also like to thank my parents and friends for their support and
valuable guidance which has seemed to be a great contribution in
completion of my research work as a project.
 BIOMOLECULES
A BIOMOLECULE or biological molecule is a loosely used term for
molecules or more commonly ions that are present in organisms. Biomolecules
including large macromolecules (or polyanions) such as protein,
carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids, as well as small molecules such as
primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, and natural products. Biology
and its subsets of biochemistry and molecular biology study biomolecules and
their reactions. Most biomolecules are organic compounds, and just four
elements – oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen – makes up 96% of the
human body’s mass. But many other elements, such as the various bimetals,
are present in small amounts. Biomolecules play a variety of roles in the
various chemical reactions occurring in the living organisms. These reactions
are collectively knows as metabolism. Living being need food which they
obtain from other living being around them, i.e. (plants and animals). Some
specific protein molecules called enzymes causes chemical changes to convert
food taken by living beings into their body parts such as tissues, muscles, etc.
The conversion of food into the body parts through a series of steps, each one
of which is carried out by a specific enzyme, and is referred to as a metabolic
pathway.
 MONOSHACCARIDES
Monosaccharide, also called simple sugar, any of the basic compounds that
serve as the building blocks of carbohydrates. Monosaccharides are
polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones; that is, they are molecules with more than
one hydroxyl group (―OH), and a carbonyl group (C=O) either at the
terminal carbon atom (aldose) or at the second carbon atom (ketose). The
carbonyl group combines in aqueous solution with one hydroxyl group to
form a cyclic compound (hemi-acetyl or hemi-ketal). The resulting
monosaccharide is a crystalline water-soluble solid. Monosaccharides are
classified by the number of carbon atoms in the molecule; dioses have two,
trioses have three, tetroses four, pentoses five, hexoses six, and heptoses seven.
Most contain five or six. The most-important pentoses include xylose, found
combined as xylan in woody materials; arabinose from coniferous trees;
ribose, a component of ribonucleic acids (RNA) and several vitamins; and
deoxyribose, a component of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Among the most-
important aldohexoses are glucose, mannose, and galactose; fructose is a
ketohexose.
 MACROMOLECULES
POLYSACCHARIDES
Polysaccharides are polymerized monosaccharides, or complex
carbohydrates. They have multiple simple sugars. Examples are
starch, cellulose, and glycogen. They are generally large and often
have a complex branched connectivity. Because of their size,
polysaccharides are not water-soluble, but their many hydroxyl
groups become hydrated individually when exposed to water and
some polysaccharides form thick colloidal dispersions when heated
in water. Shorter polysaccharides, with 3 - 10 monomers, are called
oligosaccharides .A fluorescent indicator-displacement molecular
imprinting sensor was developed for discriminating saccharides. It
successfully discriminated three brands of orange juice beverage.
The change in fluorescence intensity of the sensing films resulting is
directly related to the saccharide concentration.
 CARBOHYDRATES
Carbohydrates are macronutrients and are one of the three main ways by
which our body obtains its energy. They are called carbohydrates as they
comprise carbon, hydrogen and oxygen at their chemical level. Carbohydrates
are essential nutrients which include sugars, fibers and starches. They are
found in grains, vegetables, fruits and in milk and other dairy products. They
are the basic food groups which play an important role in a healthy life.

The food containing carbohydrates are converted into glucose or blood sugar
during the process of digestion by the digestive system.

Our body utilizes this sugar as a source of energy for the cells, organs and
tissues. The extra amount of energy or sugar is stored in our muscles and liver
for further requirement. The term ‘carbohydrate’ is derived from a French
term ‘hydrate de carbon meaning ‘hydrate of carbon‘. The general formula of
this class of organic compounds is Cn(H2O)n.

FUNCTIONS OF CARBOHYDRATES
The main function of carbohydrates is to provide energy and food to the body
and to the nervous system.

Carbohydrates are known as one of the basic components of food, including

sugars, starch, and fibre which are abundantly found in grains, fruits and
milk products.

Carbohydrates are also known as starch, simple sugars, complex

carbohydrates and so on.

It is also involved in fat metabolism and prevents ketosis.

Inhibits the breakdown of proteins for energy as they are the primary source
of energy.

An enzyme by name amylase assists in the breakdown of starch into glucose,

finally to produce energy for metabolism.

EXAMPLES OF CARBOHYDRATES
Following are the important examples of carbohydrates:

 Glucose
 Galactose
 Maltose
 Fructose
 Cellulose
DNA & RNA STRUCTURE
DNA structure is dominated by the well-known double helix formed by
Watson-Crick base-pairing of C with G and A with T. This is known as B-
form DNA, and is overwhelmingly the most favorable and common state of
DNA; its highly specific and stable base-pairing is the basis of reliable genetic
information storage. DNA can sometimes occur as single strands (often
needing to be stabilized by single-strand binding proteins) or as A-form or Z-
form helices, and occasionally in more complex 3Dstructures such as the
crossover at Holliday junctions during DNA replication.

Stereo 3D image of a group I intron ribozyme gray lines show base pairs;
ribbon arrows show double-helix regions, blue to red from 5' to 3' end; white
ribbon is an RNA product. RNA, in contrast, forms large and complex 3D
tertiary structures reminiscent of proteins, as well as the loose single strands
with locally folded regions that constitute messenger RNA molecules. Those
RNA structures contain many stretches of A-form double helix, connected
into definite 3D arrangements by single-stranded loops, bulges, and junctions.
Examples are RNA, ribosomes, ribozymes, and riboswitches. These complex
structures are facilitated by the fact that RNA backbone has less local
flexibility than DNA but a large set of distinct conformations, apparently
because of both positive and negative interactions of the extra OH on the
ribose. Structured RNA molecules can do highly specific binding of other
molecules and can themselves be recognized specifically; in addition, they can
perform enzymatic catalysis (when they are known as “ribozymes”, as initially
discovered by Tom Cech and colleagues.
 PROTEINS
Proteins are large biomolecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more
long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions
with organisms, including catalyzing metabolic reactions, DNA replication,
responding to stimuli, and transporting molecules from one location to
another. Proteins differ from one another primarily in their sequence of
amino acids, which is dictated by the nucleotides sequence of their genes, and
which usually results in proteins folding into a specific three-dimensional
structure that determines its activity.

STRUCTURE OF PROTEIN
The particular series of amino acids that form a protein is known as that
protein’s primary structure. This sequence determined by the genetic makeup
of the individual. It specifies the order of side-chain groups along the linear
polypeptide “backbone”. Proteins have two types of well classified, frequently
occurring elements of local structure defined by a particular pattern of
hydrogen bonds along the backbone: alpha helix and beta sheet. Their
number and arrangement is called the secondary structure of the protein.
Alpha helices are regular spirals stabilized by hydrogen bonds between the
backbone CO group (carbonyl) of one amino acid residue and the backbone of
NH group (amide) of the i+4 residue. The spiral has about 3.6 amino acids per
turn, and the amino acid side chains stick out from the cylinder of the helix.
Beta pleated sheets are formed by backbone hydrogen bonds between
individual beta strands of which is an “extended”, or fully stretched-out,
conformation.
When two or more polypeptide chains (either of identical or of different
sequence) cluster to form a protein, quaternary structure of protein is formed.
Quaternary structure is an attribute of polymeric (same-sequence chains)
proteins like hemoglobin, which consists of two “alpha” and two “beta”
polypeptide chains. Each succeeding level organization is more complicated
than the previous one and is a direct consequence of the chemical features of
the previous level.
 NUCLEIC ACIDS
Nucleic acids are biopolymers, or large biomolecules, essential to all known
forms of life. They are composed of monomers, which are nucleotides made of
three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous
base. If the sugar is derived from ribose as deoxyribose, the polymer is DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid).

Nucleic acids are the most important of all biomolecules. They are found in
abundance in all living things, where they function to create and encode and
then store information in the nucleus of every living cell of every life-form
organism on Earth. In turn, they function to transmit and express that
information inside and outside of the cell and ultimately to the next generation
of each living organism. The encoded information is contained and conveyed
via the nucleic acid sequence, which provides the “ladder-step” ordering of
nucleotides within the molecules of RNA and DNA.
 AMINO ACIDS
Amino acids contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. (In
biochemistry, the term amino acid is used when referring to those amino acids
in which the amino and carboxylate functionalities are attached to the same
carbon, plus proline which is not actually an amino acid).Modified amino
acids are sometimes observed in proteins; this is usually the result of
enzymatic modification after translation (protein synthesis). For example,
phosphorylation of serine by kinases and dephosphorylation by phosphatases
is an important control mechanism in the cell cycle. Only two amino acids
other than the standard twenty are known to be incorporated into proteins
during translation, in certain organisms:

 Selenocysteine is incorporated into some proteins at a UGA codon,

which is normally a stop codon.
 Pyrrolysine is incorporated into some proteins at a UAG codon. For
instance, in some methanogens in enzymes that are used to produce
methane.

Besides those used in protein synthesis, other biologically important amino

acids include carnitine (used in lipid transport within a cell), ornithine, GABA
and taurine.
 CONCLUSION
Biomolecules are vital for life as it aids organisms to grow, sustain, and

reproduce. They are involved in building organisms from single cells to

complex living beings like humans, by interacting with each other. The

diversity in their shape and structure provides diversity in their functions.

The study of these biomolecules is known as biochemistry. Biochemistry deals

with the study of their structures, functions, interactions, and reactions.

Several functions of these biological molecules are still a mystery and current

advanced techniques are being used to discover more molecules and

understand their role in life-sustaining processes.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 http://www.google.com/

 http://en.wikepedia.org

 Nootan Class 12th Chemistry

 http://biomolecules.com

 Comprehensive Chemistry

 N.C.E.R.T Class 12th Chemistry