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Understanding the Chemistry of Life

Dive into the chemical elements and water, exploring key elements in living organisms and the vital role of water. Learn about carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, their structures, uses, and functions. Uncover the intricacies of DNA structure, replication, transcription, and translation.

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Understanding the Chemistry of Life

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  1. The Chemistry of Life DP Bio Ms Wilson 9/12

  2. 3.1 Chemical elements and water • 4 elements most commonly found in living things (as we know them!) • Carbon • Hydrogen • Oxygen • Nitrogen • What else do living things need? Why?

  3. Water • Thermal properties • High specific heat (can absorb or release a lot of heat without changing temp – temp stabilizer) • High heat of vaporization (cooling mechanism) • Cohesive properties • Forms droplets • Surface tension (Jesus Christ lizard) • Moves as a column in plants • HSH and HHV • Solvent properties • Glucose, amino acids, fibrinogen and hydrogencarbonate ions (transport CO2) in blood

  4. 3.2 Carbs, lipids and proteins • Carbohydrates – monosaccharides • Lipids – glycerol and fatty acids • Proteins (polypeptides) – amino acids • Nucleic acids – nucleotides • Why are models of these molecules used? What do the molecules actually look like?

  5. Functions of carbs: • Animals: • Glucose (mono-) • Chemical fuel for cell respiration • Lactose (di-) • Makes up some of the solutes in milk • Glycogen (tri-) • Stores glucose in liver and muscles • Plants: • Fructose (mono-) • Found in many fruits • Sucrose (di-) • Often transported from leaves of plants to other locations in plants by vascular tissue • Cellulose (tri-) • One of the primary components of plant cell walls

  6. Lipids • Why are they important? • Insulation • Adipose cells hold more or less • Energy storage – think about this primitively • Phospholipid – what is that?

  7. Hydrolysis and Condensation • Hydrolysis: water “splitting” as part of reaction • Figure 3.7

  8. Condensation • Condensation: water is a product • Figure 3.8

  9. 3.3 DNA Structure • Nucleotide: a phosphate group O=P, a deoxyribose sugar and a nitrogenous base • 4 Nitrogenous bases • Adenine • Thymine • Guanine • Cytosine • Nucleotides are covalently bonded • Complementary pairs are hydrogen bonds (T and C are much smaller than A and G) • C-----G • A-----T • Check out heinemann.co.uk/hotlinks; ex code 4242P and click on Weblink 3.4

  10. 3.4 DNA Replication • Hydrogen bonds undone so DNA can be copied • Helicase is an enzyme that does this

  11. Formation of 2 complementary strands • Free nucleotides also present – can bond to end of strand • These covalent bonds are catalyzed by DNA polymerase

  12. 3.5 Transcription and Translation

  13. Transcription • Produces RNA using free nucleotides in nucleoplasm • Only 1 strand of DNA is copied • mRNA is single stranded and shorter than DNA (only 1 gene) • DNA has thymine and deoxyribose • RNA has uracil • Figure 3.15 \/

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