Transcript Focus

Focus
• What property of water is this picture
demonstrating and how.
Molecules of Life: Functional Groups
Molecules of Life—
From Structure to Function
• Only living things make the molecules of life—complex
carbohydrates and lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids
• All of these molecules are organic
• organic
– Type of compound that consists primarily of carbon and
hydrogen atoms
Figure 2.19 A molecular mimic
Modeling an Organic Molecule
Functional Groups
• Most molecules of life have at least one functional
group
• functional group
• A group of atoms bonded to a carbon of an organic
compound
• Imparts a specific chemical property such as polarity or
acidity
Common Functional Groups
Building and Breaking Down
• Condensation reactions build polymers from monomers of
simple sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and nucleotides
• Hydrolysis reactions release monomers by breaking apart
polymers
• monomers
• Molecules that are subunits of polymers
• polymer
• Molecule that consists of multiple monomers
Condensation
• Builds a large molecule
from smaller ones
• Enzyme removes –OH
group from one molecule
and -H atom from
another
• Covalent bond forms
between two molecules –
water also forms
Hydrolysis
• Splits a large molecule
into smaller ones by a
water-requiring
reaction
• Enzyme attaches –OH
group and -H atom from
water at cleavage site