Biological Molecules

• All living organisms are made from carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids
• Main three types of bond = covalent, ionic, hydrogen
• Monomers are small repeating units
• Polymerisation joins monomers together to form polymers
• Examples of monomers are monosaccharides, amino acids, nucleotides
• Examples of polymers are polysaccharides, polypeptides, polynucleotides
• Lipids are biological molecules but don't form polymers
• Monomers are joined together via condensation reactions which involves the removal of a water molecule
• Polymers can be broken down by hydrolysis reactions where they are split into their constituent monomers with the addition of a water molecule