Macromolecules - AP Biology

Polymers of amino acids are called polypeptides. A protein is made up of one or more polypeptide chains that has folded and coiled in specific 3D configurations. Nucleic acids are polymers of nucleotides. Examples of nucleic acids are RNA and DNA. Ribosomes are the site of protein synthesis and are made of rRNA and protein.

Body fat, also known as triglycerides or triacylglycerols have three fatty acid chains. These hydrocarbon tails are hydrophobic, and they are each attached to the glycerol head, which is hydrophilic via ester linkages. Adipose tissue is a type of connective tissue that plays a structural and protective role, provides stored energy, and helps regulate body temperature.

A fat is a lipid with three fatty chains linked by an ester linkage to glycerol.

A fatty acid consists of a hydrocarbon chain (carbons bound to hydrogen), with even numbers of carbons from 4 to 28, and a carboxyl group at one end. A triglyceride consists of three fatty acids with their carboxyl end bound to glycerol via an ester bond.

A phospholipid has two fatty acid tails, which consist of hydrocarbons with even numbers of carbons ranging from 4 to 28, and a phosphate group attached to a glycerol head, which is hydrophilic. Monoglycerides contain only one fatty acid chain bound to a glycerol head, and triglycerides contain three fatty acid chains.

Lipids are a large class of hydrocarbon-based molecules that includes waxes, steroids, phospholipids and fats. Lipids are hydrophobic and have functions in energy storage, providing support to the cell/organism, cell signaling, and make up the majority of the cell membrane.

Monosaccharides such as fructose are carbohydrates not lipids. Waxes, steroid hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, and triglycerides (fats) are composed mainly of hydrocarbons and are classified as lipids.

Glycogen is a carbohydrate. It is a polysaccharide that animals use to store glucose when sugars are needed by the body for fuel. All other answer choices are lipids.

Chitin is a carbohydrate. Specifically, it is a polysaccharide used by arthopods to build exoskeletons, and is found in the cell walls of fungi. Waxes are types of lipids, and nucleic acids are DNA and RNA.

Triacylglycerol (also called a fat or triglyceride) is a type of lipid. Amino acids are the subunits that make up proteins. Chitin and cellulose are polysaccharides, or carbohydrates.

A saturated fat contains no double bonds in its fatty acid chain. Just remember that saturated means the fat is saturated with hydrogens. Double bonds eliminate two hydrogen atoms per occurrence, and are present in unsaturated fats.

Enzymes are not changed or consumed by the reactions they catalyze, but can be altered by environmental conditions. They work in three-dimensional active sites to bind specific substrates and lower the activation of certain reactions, subsequently increasing the reaction rate. Reaction rate can be further increased when enzymes react with cofactors or coenzymes, but decreased when enzymes are blocked from their specified active sites by competitive inhibitors.

Fats have an incredibly high potential to produce a lot of energy when broken down. This is because they are very saturated, which means they have a lot of bonded hydrogens. They also have a lot of carbon-carbon bonds, which have a lot of potential energy stored. When you break down a fat, especially one that has fourteen or more carbons in the chain, you release the energy from every carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bond.

Comparing this to a sugar, alcohol, or protein (amino acids make up proteins), we can see that there aren't as many of these bonds to break. Proteins, in fact, require a lot of energy to break down because they have to be converted into other forms first.

Amphipathic molecules have both a polar and nonpolar region. This amphipathic quality allows phospholipids to create the plasma membrane in eukaryotic cells. The polar region is the phosphate head, which interacts with the aqueous cytosol and extracellular environment. The nonpolar region is the fatty acid tail, which is sequestered in the bilayer of the membrane and helps reduce the permeability to certain molecules.

Macromolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides, are composed of monomers. Each polymer is made from at least two smaller monomers. Protein monomers are amino acids, nucleic acid monomers are nucleotides, and polysaccharide monomers are monosaccharides. In order to form polymers, the monomers must form covalent bonds with one another.

For proteins, these covalent bonds are peptide bonds, and for saccharides they are glycosidic linkages.

Nucleotides are the monomers that make up nucleic acids. They are composed of a five-carbon sugar, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group. In building the polymer nucleic acid chain, the sugar and phosphate of one nucleotide align with those of another to build the phosphate-sugar backbone, while the nitrogenous bases will form hydrogen bonds across the helix to link two chains of nucleotides together. Phosphate groups carry negative charge; this gives the cell nucleus an overall negative charge and can be used to generate electrochemical gradients across the nuclear membrane.

Carboxylic acids are found in amino acids, and are not present in nucleic acids.

Water is a very polar substance that will not interact well with nonpolar macromolecules. Enzymes (proteins), oligosaccharides (carbohydrates), and nucleic acids all contain polar regions that make them soluble in aqueous environments. Lipids, however, are hydrocarbons and generally lack a polar region. Lipids would not be soluble in water, but would be soluble in nonpolar organic solvents, like chloroform. We can conclude that cholesterol is a lipid.

Chargaff found that in double-stranded DNA, the number of guanine bases should be equal to the number of cytosine bases, and the number of adenine bases should equal the number of thymine bases. These rules proved to be important pieces of evidence for the idea of complementarity, the theory that each DNA base pairs only with a specific other base on its opposite strand.

According to Chargaff's rules, the statement regarding guanine and cytosine bases is correct. The two other statements that are similarly worded are not correct because they do not compare the frequencies of two bases that are complementary to each other (adenine will not bind cytosine and guanine will not bind thymine). Finally, guanine-cytosine bonds are more stable than adenine-thymine bonds.

To block a receptor protein, a molecule must structurally resemble the natural ligand. The active sites of proteins are highly specific, and will only bind certain molecules. The chemical formula, electrons, and bonding in the molecule can all influence small regions of the molecule's structure, but the overall shape must ultimately match the active site of the target protein.