Organic compounds in the life

Chemical Compounds for Life
      • All living things are mostly made up of 4 elements: H, O, N, C "horn"
      • The compound is broken down into two general categories:
              o Inorganic Compounds:
                                   § Does not contain carbon
              o Organic Compounds
                                   § Contain large amounts of carbon.
                                   § Often found with a common "functional groups"
    Carbon: The "swiss army knife" of chemistry.

Chemical compounds of living things are known as organic compounds because of their association with the organism. Organic compounds, which are compounds associated with life processes, is the subject of organic chemistry. Among the various types of organic compounds, four main categories were found in all living things: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

Carbon is essential for life because of several reasons:
1. It can form a strong stable (typically nonpolar) covalent bonds
2. It can contain up to 4 chemical bonds
3. It can form double bonds

• Organic compounds are formed Polymers
            o long chain of smaller molecules (not atoms) called monomers, bind to form large macromolecules.
 

Organic Compounds life:
• 4 Type: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins and Nucleic Acids
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CARBS:
• Includes: Sugar, starch, cellulose and glycogen
• Made of Carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O)
• Once the ratio of elements C n H 2n O n
              o Sugars: Provide and store energy for cells
              o Simple sugars include glucose and fructose because it is made of only one molecule carbohydrates they are known as Mono saccharides.

•  Monosaccharides can be linked together through a process of Dehydration Synthesis

     Water is removed from 2 monocaccharides - generate a covalent bond between the two molecules

• Sucrose (table sugar) is made from sugar 2 are linked together and are called in saccharide

     Often referred to as the saccharide transport
     Requires some digestion to be used by the cells

• Starch is a monosaccharide linked together in a single chain. It's called poly saccharides.
o Plants use this to Potato as energy storage
o Two types of
 Amylose - Long chain branched strait§
 pectins - Lots of related short chain Amylose§

• Cellulose is made of long-chain polysaccharide
o Plants use this to structure (eg Wood) - not very digestible
o Due to the reverse orientation of sububnits monosaccharides, digestive enzymes can not hydrolyze the bond between them

• Glycogen is a branched polysaccharide enough
o Animals used for energy storage.

Lipids:
• Lipids are macromolecules including fats, waxes and oils
o The main function is energy storage.
 Energy is stored in the CH bonds.§
 More efficient in energy saving§
o Lipid made of 2 parts
 Glycerol - alcohol - Serves as the backbone of the molecule§
 3 fatty acids - long hydrocarbon chain§

• Saturated fats have long chain with no double-bond
• Unsaturated fats have double bonds
• Polyunsaturated fats have double bonds many
• Each time the bond is encountered, the molecule "degree" a little, so that a lower density of lipids. This makes the molecule more likely to remain liquid at room or body temperature.
• 4 major types of lipids of biological importance
• Phospholipids - It is important for membrane structure
• Steroids - example. Cholesterol and testosterone. Provide support membrane / function as hormones
• Terpene - Serves as an essential component of the pigment
• Prostaglandins - seems to act like local hormones to induce cellular responses / network.

 

Protein

• Proteins are made of amino acids
• There are 20 different amino acids. Each has the same general structure - Different only in their group "R"

• Amino acids make up the protein via a peptide bond forming deyhdration sythesis
• Two amino acids linked together called dipeptides
• More than 2 linked together are called polypeptides - polypeptide can be thousands of amino acids long

• The type of globular proteins, including proteins that normally Fiberous enzymes and proteins that normally serve to structure (eg hair)
• Protein Exhibit 4 "rate structure.
o Primary structure of proteins is the amino acid sequence.

o Sequence (primary structure) caused part of the protein molecule to fold into sheets or bend into a helix shape - this is the secondary structure of this protein.

o Proteins can then be compact and twisted on itself to form a mass called it the Tertiary Structure

o Protein few can then combine and form Quaternary structure of this protein.

• Various conformation is usually caused by the formation of hydrogen bonds or disulfide
• PH, changes or heat can disrupt these bonds, permanently denature proteins.
 

Nucleic Acids
• Two types of nucleic acids
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)
• RNA (ribonucleic acid)
o DNA Formed from the "Double Helix" - like a spiral staircase.

 DNA formed by Nucleotide

     It is made of 3 components
         A 5-carbon sugar
         A nitrogen base
         A group of Phosphate

 

Nucleotides form the backbone through the relationship of the OH group of the 3 rd carbon to phosphate groups of the next nucleotide. It's called a phosphodiester bond

     For DNA There are 4 different nucleotides categorized as Purin (double ring) or Pyramidines (single ring). This is usually represented by a letter. These Are:
         Adenine (A)
         Cytosine (C)
         Guanine (G)
         Thymine (T)

• Each "Rung" of the "ladder" of DNA is formed by connecting two nucleotides through hydrogen bonds.
• These hydrogen bonds are formed only between specific nucleotides. This is known as the Base Pairing. The rules are as follows:

o Adenine (A) ONLY for bonds to Thymine (T)
o Cytosine (C) ONLY for bonds to guanine (G)

• RNA is different from DNA in several important ways.
1. It is much smaller
2. It is a single-stranded
3. It does NOT contain Thymine, Uracil but recently called Adenine nucleotide would bind.

• ATP is closely related to nucleic acids.
• Consists of Ribose, Adenine and phosphate groups
o Cluster phosphate has the ability to bind / release extra phosphate groups that allow to store or release energy.