Bio molecules

• Living organisms are made of the same chemicals (elements and compounds) as non-living matter like the earth's crust
• Relative abundance of carbon and hydrogen is higher in living organisms compared to the earth's crust
• Chemical analysis of living tissues involves grinding in trichloroacetic acid to obtain acid-soluble and acid-insoluble fractions
• Thousands of organic compounds are found in the acid-soluble pool of living tissues
• Inorganic elements and compounds are also present in living organisms
• Elemental analysis gives the elemental composition of living tissues (hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, carbon, etc.)
• Analysis for compounds gives an idea of the kind of organic and inorganic constituents present in living tissues
• Amino acids are organic compounds containing an amino group and an acidic group on the same carbon
• Proteinaceous amino acids have a hydrogen, methyl group, or hydroxy methyl as the R group
• Amino acids can be acidic, basic, neutral, or aromatic based on their functional groups
• Lipids are generally water insoluble and can be simple fatty acids or glycerol esterified with fatty acids
• Lipids with phosphorous and phosphorylated organic compounds are phospholipids found in cell membranes
• Living organisms have carbon compounds with heterocyclic rings like nitrogen bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, uracil, thymine)
• Nucleosides are nitrogen bases attached to a sugar, while nucleotides have a phosphate group esterified to the sugar
• DNA and RNA consist of nucleotides and function as genetic material
• Primary metabolites are compounds found in animal tissues, while secondary metabolites are found in plant, fungal, and microbial cells
• Secondary metabolites include alkaloids, flavonoids, rubber, essential oils, antibiotics, pigments, etc.
• Biomolecules in living organisms are of two types: micromolecules (molecular weight <1000 Da) and macromolecules (molecular weight >10000 Da)
• Proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and lipids are macromolecules found in the acid insoluble fraction of living tissues
• Lipids are considered macromolecules due to their arrangement in structures like cell membranes
• Water is the most abundant chemical in living organisms
• Proteins are polypeptides, linear chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds
• A protein is a heteropolymer, not a homopolymer, as it consists of 20 types of amino acids
• Dietary proteins are the source of essential amino acids, which are important for our health
• Proteins carry out various functions in living organisms, such as transporting nutrients, fighting infectious agents, acting as hormones, and functioning as enzymes
• Collagen is the most abundant protein in the animal world
• Ribulose bisphosphate Carboxylase-Oxygenase (RuBisCO) is the most abundant protein in the biosphere
• Polysaccharides are long chains of sugars, with cellulose being a homopolymer consisting of glucose
• Starch is a variant of cellulose found as an energy store in plant tissues, while animals have glycogen
• Nucleic acids are polynucleotides, with DNA containing deoxyribose and RNA containing ribose
• Proteins have a primary structure (sequence of amino acids), secondary structure (folded helix), tertiary structure (folded upon itself), and quaternary structure (assembly of multiple polypeptides)
• Enzymes are proteins that catalyze reactions, with an active site where substrates bind for conversion into products
• Enzymes catalyze reactions at high rates, with thermal stability being important for their function
• Enzyme-catalyzed reactions proceed at much higher rates compared to uncatalyzed reactions
• Enzymes can accelerate reaction rates significantly, with some enzymes increasing rates by millions of times
• Thousands of types of enzymes exist, each catalyzing a unique chemical or metabolic reaction
• Metabolic pathways consist of multiple enzyme-catalyzed reactions leading to the conversion of substrates into products
• Different conditions can lead to different end products in metabolic pathways
• Enzymes bring about high rates of chemical conversions by binding substrates at their active sites and forming enzyme-substrate complexes
• Enzyme action involves the formation of an 'ES' complex, where E stands for enzyme, and it is a transient phenomenon