MACRONUTRIENTS
NUCLEIC ACIDS
- Out of all the macronutrients, the monomer of Nucleic Acids, a nucleotide, is the most complex.
- Polymer forms of Nucleic Acids make 3D structures as a result of intermolecular forces of attraction.
- Nucleic Acids have predictable rules for which nitrogenous bases are attracted to each other.
Nucleotides
- A nucleotide in a monomer of nucleic acids
- Each nucleotide is a monomer composed of 3 parts:
- One or more phosphate functional groups
- A five-carbon sugar (ribose OR deoxyribose)
- A nitrogenous base
- Nucleotides are connected between their phosphate group and a hydroxyl group on the 5-carbon sugar to make a phosphdiester bond
- DNA and RNA are both polymers, with their monomers made up of nucleotides.
Nitrogenous Bases
- There are five common nitrogenous bases:
- guanine (G)
- adenine (A)
- cytosine (C)
- thymine (T)
- uracil (U)
- C-G : Make a very strong bond. They are attached with 3 hydrogen bonds.
- A-T : They are attached with 2 hydrogen bonds.
- With hydrophobic interactions, the bases want to attach to one another.
- Bases are in the middle of DNA (hydrophobic), the phosphates (sugar backbone) like to be attracted to water (hydrophilic)
Pyrimidines
- 1 ring structure
- Consist of C, T, and U
Cytosine
Uracil
Thymine
Purines
- 2 ringed structure
- Consist of A, G
Adenine
Guanine
DNA
- Deoxyribose is used to make polymers of DNA
- Single or double stranded. Double stranded forms an alpha-helix
- When two strands come together, they always line up and connect with one strand inverted compared to the other (antiparallel)
- Stores genetic information
- Serves at the library of the cell
- Located in the nucleus
- Nitrogen bases: A, G, C, T
- DNA is the hereditary molecule in eukaryotes, prokaryotes, some viruses, mitochondria and chloroplasts.
RNA
- Ribose is used to make polymers of RNA
- Ribose is also used to make monomers like ATP, and dinucleotides that perform other functions for the cell
- Single stranded or double stranded (made up of two polymers)
- Single stranded Nucleic Acids can fold up on themselves to make functional shapes
- Transfers genetic information
- Can be used to synthesize protein
- Can be found outside of the nucleus
- Each nucleotide in RNA consists of
- Five-carbon sugar, Ribose
- a phosphate group
- one of four nitrogen bases: A, C, G, U
- RNA is the hereditary molecule in some viruses.
tRNA
- Transfer RNA is a molecule that moves amino acids to the ribosome and in doing so, binds to the mRNA.
- tRNA is folded up in three helical sections.
rRNA
- Ribosomal RNA is a part of the ribosome and is important in reading the code in mRNA in order to combine the correct amino acids to make a protein.
- Inside the ribosome, it is partially linear, and partially folded.
mRNA
- Messenger RNA is the copy of instructions form DNA.
- It is usually linear, but sometimes folds up on itself.
ATP
- ATP is made of the purine adenine.
- Smaller package of energy that comes in the form of a nucleic acid called ATP
- ATP is the main energy carrying molecule. The energy is stored in the phosphodiester bond between the middle and end phosphate groups.
- In autotrophs, like plants, sunlight energy is captured first as ATP
- Most of this energy is used by the autotroph in its daily biological processes.
- As matter is passed to heterotrophs, only about 5-20% of the original energy is passed on.
- In consumers, enzymes convert the energy consumed into ATP.
LIPIDS
- Lipids are hydrophobic molecules (non-polar) and do not dissolve in water.
- Lipids are composed mostly of hydrogen, carbon and lesser amounts of oxygen.
- Functions of lipids include:
-storage and source of energy
-hormonal roles
-insulation
-protection
-structural components
-lubrication
Waxes
- Waxes are large lipid molecules that are made of long fatty acid chains linked to alcohols or carbon rings.
- Waxes are hydrophobic, extremely non-polar, and soft solids at varying temperatures.
- Their functions are water resistance and protection.
- ex: wax coating on fruits, leaves and stems
Steroids
- Steroids are a group of lipids with structures that are made up of four fused carbon rings.
- Small differences in the side groups that attach to these rings, distinguish one steroid from another.
- Function: hormonal signalling, cell response to the environment, and growth
Testosterone
Cholesterol
- Cholesterol is an important component of the plasma membrane that surrounds animal cells.
- Cholesterol is essential for animal cell membranes and converts into a number of compounds, such as Vit D.
Phospholipids
- Phospholipids make a structure called the phospholipid bilayer, an important structural feature of cells.
- Phospholipids are comprised of two fatty acid chains and one phosphate group linked to glycerol.
- The hydrophilic end of a phospholipid faces outward toward water, and the hydrophobic fatty acid tails face inward toward each other.
- The membrane, "fluid mosaic" includes:
- Phospholipids: They make up most of the cell membrane and are the building blocks for the cell membrane to exist.
- Cholesterol: they are in between cell membranes. They are scattered randomly throughout the cell membrane and help create fluid of the membrane
- Protein: carry out nearly all membrane processes.
Triglycerides
- Insoluble in water (hydrophobic)
- Fats are solid at room temperature
- Oils are liquid at room temperature
- They are made up of 1 glycerol and 3 fatty acids
Fatty acids
- Fatty acids contain a carboxyl group linked to a hydrocarbon chain.
- Function: cellular functions and energy storage.
- As fatty acids move about, they take an organized shape called a micelle
- The fatty acids have hydrophilic and hydrophobic portions, which interact in different ways with the surrounding environment (creating this micelle shape)
Unsaturated Fat
- Unsaturated fats are good for you.
- They are made up of fatty acid chains linked to glycerol, with 1 or more double bonds.
- Function: energy storage and insulation
- In their chemical structure, both hydrogens are on the same side of the double bond, and both carbons are on the same side (CIS).
- ex: fats derived from plants, such as olive oil.
- They become less fluid as the length of their fatty acid chain increases. Those with shorter chains remain liquid.
Trans Fat
- Trans fats are bad for you.
- In their chemical structure, hydrogens and carbons are on either side of the double bond.
- Trans fats are made by partially hydrogenating unsaturated fats.
Saturated Fat
- Saturated fats are not good for you.
- They are made up of fatty acid chains linked to glycerol, with single bonds.
- Function: energy storage and insulation
- ex: fats obtained from animals such as butter and lard.
- Saturated fats are solids because their chains are long and straight and can be packed closely together to form a solid at room temp.
PROTEINS
- Muscle tissue in meat and fish is rich in protein, as well as beans, seeds, milk products, eggs and nuts.
- Proteins are made up of amino acids.
- The shape of proteins is also determined by the type of intermolecular forces of attraction between monomers.
- Proteins carry out nearly all membrane processes. They act as receptors and help transport molecules in and out of the cell.
Proteins Used in the Body
Carrier (transport)
- Carrier proteins help to transport materials throughout the cell
ex: hemoglobin
- Hemoglobin molecule is composed of four polypeptides, each consisting of more than 140 amino acids.
Structural
- Structural proteins provide framework support
- Structural proteins strengthen cells, tissues, organs and more.
- Nature can build materials that are very strong.
ex: Hair, tendons, ligaments, collagen
Enzymes
- Enzymes build and break down molecules. They are critical for growth, digestion, and many other cell processes.
- Without enzymes, chemical reactions would happen too slowly to sustain life
DNA polymerase
- Builds DNA molecules. It reads the old DNA strand and inserts the correct nucleotides into the new strand.
Lactase
- Helps infants digest lactose, a sugar in their mom's milk.
Signaling
- Signalling proteins allow cells to communicate with each other,
- Signals, receptors, and relay proteins work together to get information from the outside of a cell to the inside.
- Signalling proteins are messenger proteins such as hormones.
ex: hormones
Chemical Signaling in the Body
Amphipathic
- An amphipathic molecule, is a molecule with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts. It contains both polar and non-polar functional groups.
Hydrophilic chemical signals
- Hydrophilic chemical signals include proteins and modified amino acids.
Hydrophobic chemical signals
- Hydrophobic chemical signals include modified amino acids, like thyroxine, and the lipids molecules called steroids.
- Hydrophobic interactions are the attractive interaction between non-polar molecules, especially in a solvent like water.
Amino Acids
- There are 20 different types of amino acids. Humans can make 11 of these amino acids, and the remaining 9, which are called essential amino acids, must come from our diet.
- Amino acids with polar or ionic functional groups make stronger intermolecular forces of attraction. They can be described as hydrophilic.
- Amino acids with non-polar functional groups make weaker intermolecular forces of attraction. They can be described as hydrophobic
- Amino acids all contain an amino group, a carboxyl group, a Hydrogen atom, and an "R" group
- The "R" group represents one of 20 different side chains, one for each amino acid.
- When amino acids combine, they are always bonded to connect the carboxyl group of one amino acid, to the amino group of the next.
- The connection of amino acids is called a peptide bond.
Primary Structure
- The primary structure of a protein in the unique linear sequence of its amino acids in each polypeptide chain.
- Amino acids link up into a linear chain of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds (called a polypeptide)
Secondary structure
- This primary structure then folds or coils in different ways to make secondary structures.
- Structure begins to bend and fold because of intermolecular forces of attraction between amino acids in the same polypeptide chain.
- They are small, folded shapes within a protein, caused by hydrogen bonding.
Tertiary structure
- Finally it bends into a whole 3D shape due to a range of bonding interactions among the amino acid R groups.
- These intermolecular reactions include ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and disulphide bridges.
- This tertiary structure is a strong bond that holds two parts of the polypeptide strand together, stabilizing its shape.
- The tertiary structure is critical to the functions of proteins, especially enzymes.
Quaternary structure
- Proteins can work together in their quaternary structure.
- Some proteins will only function when they combine with other protein subunits.
- It is a combination of more than one protein with folded tertiary structures.
- The same bonds and forces that fold single polypeptide chains into tertiary structures also hold the multiple polypeptide chains together.
CARBOHYDRATES
- Very important source of quick energy.
- can be quite large, but relatively simple biochemical molecules
- Serve as important structural components.
- Composed of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen arranged in a variety of configurations
Polysaccharides
- A polysaccharide molecule is a chain of monosaccharides with many subunits joined by glycosidic linkages.
- A polysaccharide is a macromolecule, which is a very large molecule assembled by the covalent linkage of smaller subunit molecules.
- Dehydration synthesis reactions that assemble polysaccharides are examples of polymerization.
- Polymerization is the process where subunits called monomers, link together in a long chain to form a larger molecule called a polymer. ex: DNA is a type of polymer
- Polysaccharides may be very long linear, unbranched molecules, or they may contain branches in which side chains of sugar units attach to a main chain.
- Polysaccharides are very polar, and therefore very hydrophilic
- They attract water, but cannot dissolve
- Functions of polysaccharides include energy storage, structural support and cell-to-cell communication.
Heteropolysaccharides
- Contains 2 or more types of different monosaccharides. ex: a long chain of fructose and glucose molecules.
- can be unbranched or branched.
Homopolysaccharides
- Contains only a single type of monosaccharide. ex: only glucose molecules linked together.
- Can be unbranched or branched.
ex: Cellulose
- Main component of plant cell walls
- Cellulose molecules are long and straight and have very large numbers of polar OH groups.
- These features allow many cellulose molecules to assemble side by side and form hundreds of thousands of hydrogen bonds.
- These hydrogen bonds give cellulose fibres their great strength.
ex: Glycogen
- Unbranched = Amylose
- Branched = Amylopectin
- Branch points occur more frequently in Glycogen
ex: Starch
- Storage for monosaccharides in plants. It is the main carbohydrate in the human diet.
- Only made up of glucose.
- Unbranched = Amylose
- Branched = Amylopectin
Oligosaccharides
- Short chain of monosaccharides
- Less than 20 monosaccharides linked together.
- A disaccharide can be referred to as an oligosaccharide.
ex: Maltotriose
- Contains 3 glucose molecules.
Disaccharaides
- Consist of 2 monosaccharides that are joined together by a dehydration synthesis reaction.
- Bonds that link monosaccharides into larger carbon hydrates are called glycosidic bonds.
- A glycosidic bond forms between a-glucose and fructose monosaccharide, resulting in the disaccharide sucrose.
- Disaccharides contain the same functional groups that make monosaccharides hydrophilic, therefore they are easily dissolved in water.
- Function: energy source
ex: Maltose
- Forms through the linkage of two a-glucose molecules, with oxygen as a bridge between the 1-carbon of one glucose unit and the 4-carbon of the second glucose unit.
Monosaccharides
- Simplest type of carb
- Contains a single sugar
- Generally have a ratio of 1 carbon : 2 hydrogen : 1 oxygen
- Function: building blocks for more complex carbs and energy source
- All monosaccharides can occur in a linear form, however when formed in water, monosaccharides with five or more carbon atoms fold back on themselves to form a ring
- This ring forms occurs through a reaction between 2 functional groups in the same monosaccharide
ex: ribose + deoxyribose
ex: Fructose
- Glucose, fructose and galactose are isomers of each other (have the same chemical formula as one another, but a different arrangement of atoms)
- When the polar carbonyl group interacts with a polar hydroxyl group, this forms a ring structure. (They have strong intermolecular forces of attraction like dipole-dipole and hydrogen bonding among each other, and nearby molecules)
ex: Glucose
- Plants produce Glucose during photosynthesis, and it provides energy for many functions in plants and animals
- perhaps the most widely used monosaccharide
- When the polar carbonyl group interacts with a polar hydroxyl group, this forms a ring structure. (They have strong intermolecular forces of attraction like dipole-dipole and hydrogen bonding among each other, and nearby molecules)
- When glucose forms a ring structure it can form two different isomers, alpha-glucose or beta-glucose. The different arrangement of the -OH group on glucose can give chemicals different properties. ex: humans can digest starches composed of alpha-glucose, however cellulose, which is made from beta-glucose, is indigestible for humans.
- Glucose, fructose and galactose are isomers of each other (have the same chemical formula as one another, but a different arrangement of atoms).
