Transcript The Chemistry of Life

The Chemistry of Life
What are living
creatures made of?
Why do we have
to eat?
Molecules of Life
 Put C, H, O, N together in different
ways to build living organisms
 What are bodies made of?

carbohydrates
 sugars & starches
proteins
 fats (lipids)
 nucleic acids

 DNA, RNA
Why do we eat?
 We eat to take in more of these chemicals

Food for building materials
 to make more of us (cells)
 for growth
 for repair

Food to make energy
 calories
 to make ATP
ATP
How do we make these molecules?
We build them!
2006-2007
Building large molecules of life
 Chain together smaller molecules

building block molecules = monomers
 Big molecules built from little molecules

polymers
Building large organic molecules
 Small molecules = building blocks
 Bond them together = polymers
Building important polymers
Carbohydrates = built from sugars
sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar – sugar
Proteins = built from amino acids
amino amino amino amino amino amino
acid – acid – acid – acid – acid – acid
Nucleic acids (DNA) = built from nucleotides
nucleotide – nucleotide – nucleotide – nucleotide
How to build large molecules
 Synthesis
building bigger
molecules from smaller
molecules
 building cells & bodies

 repair
 growth
 reproduction
+
ATP
How to build a polymer
 Synthesis

You gotta
be open to
“bonding!
joins monomers by “taking” H2O out
 one monomer donates OH–
 other monomer donates H+
 together these form H2O

H 2O
requires energy & enzymes
HO
H
Dehydration synthesis
HO
H
enzyme
Condensation reaction
HO
H
How to take large molecules apart
 Digestion
taking big molecules apart
 getting raw materials

 for synthesis & growth

making energy (ATP)
 for synthesis, growth & everyday functions
+
ATP
How to break down a polymer
Breaking up
is hard to do!
 Digestion

use H2O to breakdown polymers
 reverse of dehydration synthesis
 cleave off one monomer at a time
 H2O is split into H+ and OH–
 H+ & OH– attach to ends
requires enzymes
HO
 releases energy
H2O

enzyme
H
Hydrolysis
Digestion
HO
H
HO
H
Example of digestion
ATP
ATP
ATP
ATP
ATP
starch
ATP
glucose
ATP
 Starch is digested to glucose
Example of synthesis
amino acids
protein
 Proteins are synthesized by bonding amino acids
amino acids = building block
protein = polymer
Any
Questions?
Penguins
gone bad!