BIO 101 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2

 Russian biochemist Alexander I. Oparin & British biologist J. B. S. Haldane

- In the 1920s, they independently proposed that life originated on earth after
an inconceivably long period of “abiogenic molecular evolution.”

- They both argued that the simplest form of life arose gradually by the
progressive assembly of small molecules into more complex organic
molecules.

 Water
- The most abundant of all compounds in cells, forming 60% to 90% of most
living organisms.

- Has a high specific heat capacity:

o 1 calorie * is required to elevate the temperature of 1 g of water 1° C, a
higher thermal capacity than any other liquid except ammonia.

- Has a high heat of vaporization:

o Requires more than 500 calories to convert 1 g of liquid water to water
vapor.

- Has a unique density behavior during changes of temperature.

o Most liquids become denser with decreasing temperature. Water,
however, reaches its maximum density at 4° C while still a liquid, then
becomes less dense with further cooling. Therefore, ice floats rather
than sinking to the bottoms of lakes and ponds.

- Has high surface tension, exceeding that of any other liquid but mercury.

- Has low viscosity

- An excellent solvent

 Hydrolysis
- A process where compounds are split into smaller pieces by the addition of a
molecule of water.

 Condensation reactions
- A process where compounds may be synthesized from smaller components
by the reverse of hydrolysis.
 pH scale
- Quantifies the degree to which a solution is acidic or basic.

 Buffer
- A dissolved substance (solute) that causes a solution to resist changes in pH
because the buffer can remove added H+ and OH− ions from solution by
binding them into compounds.

 Carbohydrates
- Compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

- Usually occur in the ratio of 1 C: 2 H: 1 O and are grouped as H—C—OH.

- Function in the protoplasm mainly as structural elements and as a source

of chemical energy.

o Glucose is the most important of these energy-storing carbohydrates.

Familiar examples of carbohydrates include sugars, starches, and
cellulose (the woody structure of plants).

- Synthesized by green plants from water and carbon dioxide, with the aid of
solar energy (Photosynthesis).

- Usually grouped into three classes:

1. Monosaccharides (or simple sugars)
 Have a single carbon chain containing 4 carbons (tetroses), 5
carbons (pentoses), or 6 carbons (hexoses).
 Glucose (also called dextrose is a hexose.

2. Disaccharides (or double sugars)

 Are double sugars formed by bonding two simple sugars.

3. Polysaccharides (or complex sugars)

 Contain many molecules of simple sugars (usually glucose)
linked in long chains called polymers.

 Chitin; an important structural polysaccharide in the

exoskeletons of insects and other arthropods.

 Glycogen; a multi-branched polymer of glucose, is an important

polymer for storing sugar in animals

 Cellulose; the principal structural carbohydrate of plants.

 Lipids
- Fats and fatlike substances.

- They are molecules of low polarity.

- They are virtually insoluble in water but are soluble in organic solvents,
such as acetone and ether.

- The three principal groups of lipids are:

1. Triglycerides
2. Phospholipids
3. Steroids

 Triglycerides
- “True” fats; the major fuels of animals

- Contain glycerol and three molecules of fatty acids.

- Are esters, a combination of an alcohol (glycerol) and an acid.

- Fatty acids in triglycerides are simply long chain monocarboxylic acids.

- Saturated fatty acids; every carbon within the chain holds two hydrogen
atoms.

- Unsaturated fatty acids; typical of plant oils, have two or more carbon atoms
joined by double bonds; the carbons are not “saturated” with hydrogen atoms
and are available to form bonds with other atoms.

o Two common unsaturated fatty acids are oleic acid and linoleic acid.

 Phospholipids
- Are important components of the molecular organization of tissues,
especially membranes.

- They resemble triglycerides in structure, except that one of the three fatty
acids is replaced by phosphoric acid and an organic base.

o Lecithin; an important phospholipid of nerve membranes.

 - Amphiphilic; describes compounds, like phospholipids, that are polar and
water-soluble on one end and nonpolar on the other end.

 Steroids
- Complex alcohols.

- Although they are structurally unlike fats, they have fatlike properties,
including low polarity.

- A large group of biologically important molecules, including cholesterol,

vitamin D3, many adrenocortical hormones, and sex hormones.

 Proteins
- Large, complex molecules composed usually of hundreds to thousands of
amino acids linked together in one or more chains.

- There are 20 kinds of amino acids used to construct proteins.

o The amino acids are linked by peptide bonds to form long, chainlike
polymers.

- It is not just a long string of amino acids; it is a highly organized molecule.

o Four levels of protein organization (all are structures):
1. Primary
 The sequence of amino acids composing the polypeptide
chain.

 Because bonds between the amino acids in the chain can

form only a limited number of stable angles, the chain
assumes certain recurring structural patterns.

2. Secondary
 Generated by the bond angles.
 Eg: Alpha-helix, which makes helical turns in a clockwise
direction like a screw.

3. Tertiary
 Helical and other configurations formed by the polypeptide
chain bend and fold, giving the protein its complex, yet
stable, three-dimensional tertiary structure.
  Chemical bonds between pairs of amino acids from
different parts of the polypeptide chain stabilize tertiary
structure. These bonds form between “side groups,” parts
of the amino acid not involved in a peptide bond.

 Disulfide bond; a covalent bond between the sulfur

atoms in two cysteine amino acids that are brought
together by folds in the polypeptide chain.

 Bonds that stabilize the tertiary structure of proteins:

 Hydrogen bonds
 Ionic bonds
 Hydrophobic bonds

4. Quaternary
 Describes proteins that contain more than one polypeptide
chain.
 Hemoglobin; (the oxygen-carrying substance in blood) of
jawed vertebrates comprises four polypeptide subunits
held together in a single protein molecule.

 Enzymes
- The biological catalysts required for almost every reaction in the body.

- Lower the activation energy required for specific reactions and enable life
processes to proceed at moderate temperatures rather than requiring high
temperatures.

- Control the reactions by which food is digested, absorbed, and metabolized.

- Promote the synthesis of structural materials for growth and to replace those
lost by wear.

- Determines the release of energy used in respiration, growth, muscle

contraction, physical and mental activities, and many other activities.
 Prion
- An infectious protein particle in which a protein of the host organism is
contorted into an abnormal three-dimensional structure.

- Upon infection, the prion causes its host’s normal copies of the protein to be
refolded into the abnormal form, with pathological results.

o In “mad cow disease,” a prion infection severely damages brain

tissues and is fatal. Fatal neurological diseases associated with
transmissible prions occur also in people (for example, kuru), and in
sheep and goats (scrapie).

 Nucleic Acids
- Complex polymeric molecules whose sequence of nitrogenous bases
encodes the genetic information necessary for biological inheritance.

- They store directions for the synthesis of enzymes and other proteins, and
are the only molecules that can (with the help of the right enzymes) replicate
themselves.

- Two kinds of nucleic acids:

1. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
2. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)

- They are polymers of repeated units called nucleotides, each of which

contains a sugar, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group.

- Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is the primary transporter of chemical

energy in cellular metabolism.

 Free energy
- A continuous source of this is needed in order to produce a chemical reaction
and overcome reaction-activation barriers.

 Autotrophs
- Organisms that can synthesize their food from inorganic sources using light or
another source of energy.
 Heterotrophs
- Organisms lacking the ability in the previous term must obtain their food
supplies directly from the environment.

- All heterotrophs depend for their nutrients directly or indirectly on autotrophs,

which capture the sun’s energy to synthesize their own nutrients.

 Primary Heterotrophs
- The earliest postulated microorganisms.
- Relied on environmental sources for their food and existed prior to the
evolution of any autotrophs.

 Carl Woese
- Challenged the traditional view that the first organisms were primary
heterotrophs.

- He visualized the earliest living forms as membrane-associated molecular

aggregates that absorbed visible light and converted it with some efficiency
into chemical energy.

o The first organisms would’ve been autotrophs.

- Also suggested that the earliest “metabolism” comprised numerous chemical

reactions catalyzed by non-protein cofactors (substances necessary for the
function of many of the protein enzymes in living cells).

o These cofactors would have been associated with membranes.

 Oxidative (aerobic) metabolism

- By using available oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor and completely
oxidizing glucose to carbon dioxide and water, much of the bond energy
stored by photosynthesis could be recovered.

- Most living forms became completely dependent upon oxidative metabolism.

 Almost all oxygen currently produced comes from:

1. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)
2. Eukaryotic algae
3. Plants
 “Cambrian explosion”
- Fossil deposits are mostly devoid of any organisms more complex than
single-celled bacteria.

 Prokaryotes
- Meaning “before the nucleus.”

- E.g. Bacteria and Archaea

- They contain a single, large molecule of DNA not located in a membrane-

bound nucleus, but found in a nuclear region, or nucleoid.

- Lack the chromosomal organization and chromosomal (mitotic) division found

in animals, plants, and fungi.

 Archaea (Archaebacteria)
- Fundamentally different with bacteria in terms of cellular metabolism and in
the sequence of bases in ribosomal RNA.

- Cells walls lack muramic acid.

 Eukaryotes
- Meaning “true nucleus.”

- Have cells with membrane-bound nuclei containing chromosomes

composed of chromatin.

- Constituents of eukaryotic chromatin include proteins called histones and

RNA, in addition to DNA.

- Eukaryotes are generally larger than prokaryotes and contain much more
DNA.

- Includes:
1. Animals
2. Plants
3. Fungi
4. Protozoans / Protists (single-celled forms)

 Dr. Lynn Margulis

- Their endosymbiotic theory of the origins of mitochondria and
chloroplasts is strongly supported by molecular evolutionary studies.
 o A plastid with chlorophyll is a chloroplast.

 Symbiogenesis
- The merging of disparate organisms to produce evolutionarily novel forms.