BABS1201 – Molecules, Cells and Genes

Lecture 1 - Life
Learning Outcomes:
LO1 List the major elements of life.
LO2 Describe some properties of water that make it essential for life as we know it.
LO3 Changes in pH affect living organisms

LO1
- Carbon
- Hydrogen
- Oxygen
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Sulphur

LO2
- Nearly all biological molecules assume their shapes and functions in response to the
physical and chemical properties of water
- The medium for most biochemical reactions is water
- Reactions involving water comprise many of those that support life
- Living organisms are found where water is found

- Two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen

- The oxygen is more electronegative than the hydrogen. This results in a polar
molecule, as the electrons are unequally shared, so the overall charge of the
molecule is not evenly distributed

- Water molecules attract each other (Water cohesion and adhesion)

- Water molecules near the surface interact more with those below and adjacent to
them, like a film (Water Tension)

- It dissolves more substances than any other liquid (Water is an excellent solvent)
 - Fats and oils are hydrophobic
- They are not charges at their poles and are not attracted to water
- Soaps, which have hydrophobic and hydrophilic (water loving) ends are used to
break up fat and oil droplets, which can be washed away with water.
- Water expands, and floats, when it freezes (The density of water and ice)

LO3

- Biological systems are generally buffered at pH ~7

- Control of blood pH is a fundamental physiological process
- Water is amphoteric – Acid or a base, base a proton acceptor, acid a proton donor

- CO2 + H2O <--> H2CO3 <--> H+ HCO3- (Respiration)

- Skeletal muscle can stop functioning correctly during extremely strenuous exercise
because of a build-up of lactic acid and a decrease in pH in the muscle
- A coma that can occur in untreated diabetes results from acidification of the blood
by ketone bodies
- The conversion of muscle glycogen to lactate generates ATP
- Blood lactate rises from 1.6 to 8.3 mM
- The release of H+ lowers the blood pH from 7.42 to 7.24
- This pace cannot be sustained in a longer run as acidosis results