Macromolecules: Building blocks of life

November 12, 2009

Explain why water is important to living organisms.

Journal 11/12/09

Living organisms must have water for life processes, because molecules and ions must be free to move and interact, which only happens when they are dissolved in water. Water also transports materials in living organisms, such as in blood or sap.

Answer

• Classify the variety of organic compounds.

Objectives:

• Describe how polymers are formed and broken down in organisms.

• Compare the structures and functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, and relate their importance to living things.

• Identify the effects of enzymes.

Today’s notes:

• We will be getting information from this power point and putting it into a “foldable”.

• We will need four flaps one for each of the macromolecules we will be learning.

• You will put the names of the 4 macromolecules on each of the flaps and put some important information about each macromolecule under the flap.

• See Mrs. Dion’s model.

Molecular chains that create macromolecules

• Small molecules bond together to form chains called polymers. A polymer is a large molecule formed when many smaller molecules bond together.

• The largest carbohydrate molecules are polysaccharides, polymers composed of many monosaccharide subunits. (ie. potatoes, liver)

The structure of carbohydrates • The simplest type of carbohydrate is a simple

sugar called a monosaccharide (mah noh SA kuh ride). (ie. glucose, fructose)

• Lipids are large macromolecules that are made mostly of carbon and hydrogen with a small amount of oxygen. (ie. fats, oils, waxes)

The structure of lipids

• They are insoluble in water because their molecules are nonpolar and are not attracted by water molecules.

• A protein is a large, complex polymer composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sometimes sulfur.

The structure of proteins

The structure of proteins • The basic building blocks of proteins are called

amino acids.

• There are about 20 common amino acids that can make literally thousands of proteins.

• Proteins are the building blocks of many structural components of organisms.

The structure of proteins

The structure of proteins • Enzymes are important proteins found in living

things. An enzyme is a protein that changes the rate of a chemical reaction.

• They speed the reactions in digestion of food.

Click image to view movie.

• A nucleic (noo KLAY ihk) acid is a complex macromolecule that stores cellular information in the form of a code.

The structure of nucleic acids

• Nucleic acids are polymers made of smaller subunits called nucleotides.

The structure of nucleic acids • Nucleotides are arranged in three groups—a

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

Phosphate

SugarNitrogenous

base

• DNA, which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid.

The structure of nucleic acids

Phosphate

SugarNitrogenous

base

The structure of nucleic acids • The information coded in DNA contains the

instructions used to form all of an organism’s enzymes and structural proteins.

• Another important nucleic acid is RNA, which stands for ribonucleic acid. RNA is a nucleic acid that forms a copy of DNA for use in making proteins.