Today we will talk about

What is a biomolecule?
A biomolecule is a chemical compound that
plays an important role in living beings
 Wait, what's a polymer?
A polymer is a macromolecule, a long chain
composed of the regular repetition of several
identical molecular groups, called monomers.
 Which are them?

● Carbohydrates
● Protein
● Lipids
● Nucleic acid
 Carbohydrates? What are they?
Carbohydrates are molecules
composed, as their name
suggests, of carbon and OH
groups (called hydrates).
● There are 3 types:
● Monosaccharides, composed
of a single independent
monomer
● Oligosaccharides, small
macromolecules compost of
a small number of monomers
● Polysaccharides, long chains
made up of thousands of
monomers
Which are carbohydrates functions?
They can act as a short-term
energy reserve or as a structure for
living beings.
An example of the first case is
starch, which serves as a reserve
for plants; in animals its role is
covered by glycogen; same for the
simple sugars like glucose and
sucrose, but in a shorter term.
The monomers here are bound by
bonds that are easy to break so as
to be digestible by living creatures.
Examples of the other are cellulose
and chitin (which makes up the
exoskeletons of insects, for
example), which are stronger and
bound by more stable bonds. So,
even fiberso are carbohydrates
Intresting. What about proteins?
These are chains
composed of
monomers known as
'amino acids', which
can be different from
each other,
depending on the
chain represented by
R in the drawing;
bonded by a peptide
bonding
And what functions do they perform
in the cell?
Many functions:
● Support the immune system
● Aid muscle development
● They are components for
enzymes
● They provide a structure for
biological components such
as hair, claws and hooves
● Transport of nutritive
substances
● Hormonal functions and
transmission of nerve
impulses
 And lipids?

They are molecules

consisting of a shorter
glycerol chain bonded
to a number of longer
chains, the fatty
acids.
 What are they for?
They can serve three main
purposes:
● Acting as a thermal
insulator in some species
of animals (triglycerides)
● To act as a long-term
energy reserve
● To form cell membranes
(phospholipids)
 Only the nucleic acid is left
Yes. As the name
suggests, these are
the macromolecule
contained in the
nuclei of cells. In
known organisms
there are two: RNA,
based on ribose, and
DNA, based on
deoxyribose.
 How is it composed?
It consists of a long chain of
sugars linked together by a
phosphoric bond. A nitrogenous
base is attached to each of
these sugars.
There are two types of
nitrogenous base:
● Purines: whose base is two
rings at 5 and 6 carbon atoms,
they are adenine and guanine
● Pyrimidines: whose base is a
ring with 6 carbon atoms, they
are thymine, cytosine and uracil
(which replaces thymine in the
RNA)
 Seems pretty important...
Very important. DNA contains all the genetic
information of the cell and is essential for its
reproduction, RNA decodes it in order to
produce specific proteins via polymerase.