GENERAL BIOLOGY

(BIOL101)

Chapter 2
The Structure and Function of
Large Biological Molecules
 The Molecules of Life
• All living organisms are made up of four classes
of large biological molecules.
 Macromolecules are polymers, built from
monomers
• A polymer is a long molecule consisting of many
similar building blocks called monomers.
• Chain polymers are like a train, consisting of a
chain of cars.
• Three of the four life’s organic molecules are
polymers:
1. carbohydrates
2. proteins

3. nucleic acids.
 (CARBOHYDRATES)
• Carbohydrates serve as fuel and building
materials .
• They include sugars and polymers of sugars.

• The sugars are:

1. Monosaccharides (simple sugars).
2. Disaccharides (double sugars).
• The polymers of sugars are called
Polysaccharaides (macromolecules).
 Monosaccharides
• Generally have molecular formula that
are some multiple of the unit (CH2O).
• Monosaccharides serve as:
1. a major fuel for cells.
2. raw material for building molecules

• Glucose (C6H12O6) is the most common

monosaccharide.
• Monosaccharides are classified by:
– The location of the carbonyl group , to aldoses
or ketoses. (the red arrows below)
– The length of the carbons skeleton. examples:
trioses , pentoses, hexose.
Sugars are often drawn as linear skeletons, but
some may form rings in aqueous solutions

Linear and ring forms

 Disaccharides
ØA disaccharide is formed when a dehydration
reaction joins two monosaccharides.
ØThe covalent bond of a disaccharide is called a
glycosidic linkage.

ØEXAMPLES:
ØMaltose (malt sugar) : two molecules of glucose.
ØSucrose (table sugar): glucose + fructose.
ØLactose (milk sugar): glucose + galactose.
Fig. 5-5

1–4
glycosidic
linkage

Glucose Glucose Maltose

(a) Dehydration reaction in the synthesis of maltose
1–2
glycosidic
linkage

Glucose Fructose Sucrose

(b) Dehydration reaction in the synthesis of sucrose
 Polysaccharides
• Polysaccharides are the polymers of sugars.
• They function as storage and structural units.
• The structure and function of a polysaccharide
are determined by:
v Type of sugar monomers.
v The positions of glycosidic linkages.
 Storage Polysaccharides
• Both plants and animals store sugars for later use in the
form of storage polysaccharides.
• Starch: is the storage polysaccharide of plants.
• Plants store starch as granules within chloroplasts and other
plastids.
• Glycogen: is the storage polysaccharide of animals.
• Humans and other vertebrates store glycogen mainly in
liver and muscle cells.
• Both starch and glycogen are polymers of glucose
monomers.
Fig. 5-6

Chloroplast Starch Mitochondria Glycogen granules

0.5 µm

1 µm

Amylose Glycogen

Amylopectin

(a) Starch: a plant polysaccharide (b) Glycogen: an animal polysaccharide

 Structural Polysaccharides (Cellulose)
• The polysaccharide cellulose is a major component of plant cell
walls.
• Like starch, cellulose is a polymer of glucose, but the glycosidic
linkages differ, being alpha (a) in starch and beta (b) in
cellulose.
• In alpha glucose, the hydroxyl group attached to carbon
number (one) is below the plane of the ring , meanwhile in
beta glucose is above the plane.

(a) glucose (b) glucose

Fig. 5-7bc

Starch: 1–4 linkage of (a) glucose monomers

Cellulose: 1–4 linkage of (b) glucose monomers

 lipids
Lipids are a diverse group of hydrophobic
molecules
ØLipids are :
o Large biological molecules .
o Non-polymers (do not form macromolecules).
o hydrophobic (having little or no affinity for water).

ØThe most biologically important lipids include:

fats – phospholipids - steroids

 Fats
• The major function of fats is energy storage.
(1 gram of fat stores more than twice as much
energy as a gram of a polysaccharide).
• Fats are composed of glycerol + fatty acids.
• A fat molecule is a (triacylglycerol), or
(triglyceride) , in which the fatty acids are
joined to glycerol by an ester linkage.
Fig. 5-11

Fatty acid
(palmitic acid)

Glycerol
(a) Dehydration reaction in the synthesis of a fat
Ester linkage

(b) Fat molecule (triacylglycerol)

• Fatty acids are either unsaturated or
saturated.
• Unsaturated fatty acids have one or more
double bonds in their carbon skeleton, but
saturated fatty acids do not have.
• Unsaturated fats contain unsaturated
Fatty acids.
• Saturated fats contain saturated Fatty
acids.
Fig. 5-12b

Structural formula
of an unsaturated
fat molecule

cis double bond

Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature(oils),
like plant and fish fats.
Fig. 5-12a

Structural
formula of a
saturated fat
molecule

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature (fats),

like most animal fats.
 Phospholipids
• Phospholipids are the major components
of all cell membranes.
• A phospholipid contains hydrophobic tails
and a hydrophilic head.
• Phospholipids form two layers in water,
the hydrophobic tails point towards the
interior (away from water), as in cell
membranes.
Fig. 5-14

Hydrophilic WATER
head

Hydrophobic
tails WATER
 Steroids
Fig. 5-15

• Are characterized by a carbon skeleton consisting of four fused

rings.
• Cholesterol is an essential steroid found in animal cell
membranes.
• High levels of cholesterol in the blood may contribute to
cardiovascular diseases.
 Proteins
Proteins have many structures, resulting in a wide
range of functions
Protein type Example
Enzymatic Digestive enzymes
Structural Collagen and keratin
Storage Protein of milk & egg white
Transport hemoglobin
Hormonal insulin
Defensive Antibodies
 Polypeptides
• Polypeptides are polymers built from the
amino acids (monomers).
• A protein consists of one or more polypeptides.

Amino Acid Monomers

Amino acids are organic molecules containing

carboxyl and amino groups
 a carbon

Amino Carboxyl
group group

The 20 known amino acids differ in their

properties due to difference in (R) groups (the
side chain).
The 20 amino acids are classified into:
1. Polar: (dissolve in water)
2. Non-polar: (do not dissolve in water)

3. Electrically charged : (either Acidic , or Basic).

Amino Acid Polymers

Amino acids are linked by peptide bonds to form a
polypeptide polymer.
Each polypeptide has a unique linear sequence of amino
acids.
Fig. 5-18

Peptide
bond

(a)

Side chains
Peptide
bond

Backbone

Amino end Carboxyl end

(b) (N-terminus) (C-terminus)
 Protein Structure and Function

• A functional protein has a unique shape and

structure that is determined by the sequence of
amino acids.
• A protein’s structure determines its function.
• There are Four Levels of Protein Structure:
primary, secondary, tertiary and Quaternary
Sickle-Cell Disease: A Change in Primary Structure

• A slight change in primary structure can affect a

protein’s structure and function.
• Sickle-cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that
results from a single amino acid substitution in the
protein hemoglobin.
• Sickle hemoglobin molecules interact with one
another and crystallize into a fiber; the capacity to
carry oxygen is greatly reduced.
• Fibers of abnormal hemoglobin deform red blood cell
into sickle shape.
Normal red blood cells Deformed red blood cell with
sickle shape.
Fibers of abnormal hemoglobin deform red
blood cell into sickle shape.
 What Determines Protein Structure?
• In addition to primary structure, physical and chemical
conditions can affect structure.
• The following factors can change a protein native
structure:
Ø Alterations in pH.
Ø Salt concentration.
Ø temperature.
Ø Other environmental factors.

• loss of a protein’s native structure is called denaturation.

• A denatured protein is biologically inactive.

Fig. 5-23

Denaturation

Normal protein Renaturation Denatured protein

Nucleic acids store and transmit hereditary information

• If the primary structure of a polypeptide determines

a protein’s shape, what determine primary structure?
• The amino acid sequence of a polypeptide is
programmed by a unit of inheritance called a gene

• Genes are made of DNA, a nucleic acid

• There are two types of nucleic acids:
1. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
2. Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
 The Structure of Nucleic Acids
• Nucleic acids are polymers called (polynucleotides)
made of monomers called (nucleotides).

• A nucleotide components are :

1. a nitrogenous base.
2. a pentose sugar.
3. a phosphate group.
Fig. 5-27ab
5' end

5'C

3'C
Nitrogenous
base

5'C

3'C
Phosphate Sugar
5'C (pentose)
group
3'C (b) Nucleotide

3' end
Polynucleotide, or nucleic acid
 Nucleotide Monomers

Nucleic The nitrogenous bases The pentose

acid sugar
Pyrimidines Purines

DNA Cytosine (C) & adenine (A) & Deoxyribose

thymine (T) guanine (G)

RNA Cytosine (C) & adenine (A) &

uracil (U) guanine (G) Rribose
 Pyrimidines

(C) (T) (U)

Purines

(Deoxyribose) (Ribose)

(A) (G)
pentose sugars
nitrogenous bases
 The DNA Double Helix
• In the DNA double helix, the two backbones run in
opposite 5¢ → 3¢ directions from each other
(antiparallel), like a highway
• The nitrogenous bases in DNA pair up and form
hydrogen bonds: (A ) always with (T), and (G) always
with (C).
• A gene is a segment of DNA. One DNA molecule
includes many genes.
• The linear sequences of nucleotides in DNA molecules
are passed from parents to offspring.
• Two closely related species are more similar in DNA than
are more distantly related species.
Fig. 5-28
5' end 3' end

Sugar-phosphate
backbones

The DNA Double Helix Base pair (joined by

hydrogen bonding)
J. Watson and F. Crick, 1953
Old strands

Nucleotide
about to be
added to a
new strand
3' end

5' end

New
strands

3' end 5' end

5' end 3' end