Biological Macromolecules

o Carbohydrates o Lipids o Proteins o Nucleic acid

 Monomers are the smaller units from which larger molecules are made
 Polymers are molecules made from a large number of monomers joined together in a chain
 Macromolecules are very large molecules
 Polymers can be macromolecules, however not all macromolecules are polymers as the
subunits of polymers have to be the same repeating units
 Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids contain the elements carbon (C) making
them organic compounds
 Carbon atoms are key to the organic compounds because:
o Each carbon atom can form four covalent bonds – this makes the compounds very
stable (as covalent bonds are so strong they require a large input of energy to break
them)
o Carbon atoms can bond to form linear chains, branched chains or rings

Carbohydrates

 Carbohydrates are one of the main carbon-based

compounds in living organisms
 All molecules in this group contain C, H and O
 They can be represented by the formula (CH2O)n
 Function: Energy Source and Storage and
Structural Support.
 The three types of carbohydrates are
monosaccharides, disaccharides, and
polysaccharides.
 A monosaccharide is a simple (single) sugar
o Glucose [C6H12O6] (Source of energy)
o Fructose (in fruits)
o Galactose (dairy products, avocado, sugar beet…)
 A disaccharide is made when two monosaccharides join together
o Maltose is formed from two glucose molecules (fruits and vegetables)
o Sucrose is formed from one glucose and one fructose molecule (table sugar)
o Lactose is formed from one glucose and one galactose (milk)
 A polysaccharide is formed when lots of monosaccharides join together
o Starch (in plants – energy storage), glycogen (in animals – energy storage), chitin (fungi,
insects, shrimp – structural support) or cellulose (cell wall – structural support) are all
formed when lots of glucose molecules join together
 o Polysaccharides are insoluble and therefore useful as storage molecules

Lipids
 Macromolecules which contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. However, unlike
carbohydrates lipids contain a lower proportion of oxygen

 Main Function: store energy
 There are three groups of lipid that you need to know:
o Triglycerides (the main component of fats and oils)
o Steroids
o Phospholipids

Triglycerides

 Are non-polar, hydrophobic molecules

 The monomers are 1 glycerol and 3 fatty acids
 The fatty acids vary in size and structure
 Fatty acids can vary in two ways:
o The fatty acid chain saturated (mainly in animal fat), unsaturated (mainly vegetable oils,
although there are exceptions e.g. coconut and palm oil), or polyunsaturated.

Saturated Unsaturated Polyunsaturated

Proteins

 Proteins are formed from long chains of amino acids

 There are 20 different amino acids
 When amino acids are joined together a protein is formed
 Amino acids can be arranged in any order, resulting in hundreds of thousands of different
proteins
o Examples of proteins include enzymes, haemoglobin, ligaments and keratin

 Different proteins have different amino acid sequences resulting in them being different shapes
 Even a small difference in the amino acid seque/nce will result in a completely different protein
being formed
 The different sequences of amino acids cause the polypeptide chains to fold in different
ways and this gives rise to the different shapes of proteins
 In this way, every protein has a unique 3-D shape that enables it to carry out its function
 The shape of a protein determines its function