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Biochemistry: Carbon Compounds

Carbon compounds are the basis of life on Earth. Carbon readily forms covalent bonds with itself and other elements, resulting in an enormous variety of organic compounds. These compounds contain monomers that link through condensation reactions to form polymers, or macromolecules, including carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Cells use ATP as an energy currency, harnessing the energy released when its phosphate bonds break to power metabolic reactions.

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47 views

Biochemistry: Carbon Compounds

Carbon compounds are the basis of life on Earth. Carbon readily forms covalent bonds with itself and other elements, resulting in an enormous variety of organic compounds. These compounds contain monomers that link through condensation reactions to form polymers, or macromolecules, including carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Cells use ATP as an energy currency, harnessing the energy released when its phosphate bonds break to power metabolic reactions.

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api-464344582
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Biochemistry

Carbon compounds
Although water is the primary medium
for life on Earth, most of the molecules
from which living organisms are made
are based on the element of carbon.
Student Objectives

1. Distinguish between organic and inorganic molecules.


2. Explain the importance of carbon bonding in biological molecules.
3. Identify functional groups in biological molecules.
4. Summarize how large carbon molecules are synthesized and broken down.
5. Describe how the breaking down of ATP supplies energy to drive chemical
reactions.
Carbon Bonding

 Organic compounds are made primarily


of carbon atoms.
 Inorganic compounds, with a few
exceptions, do not contain carbon
compounds.
 A carbon atom has four electrons in its
outermost energy level. Most atoms
become stable when their outermost
energy levels contain eight electrons.
 A carbon forms four covalent bonds with
the atoms of other elements.
 Carbon also readily bonds with other
carbon atoms.
 This tendency of carbon to bond with
itself results in an enormous variety of
organic compounds.
Carbon bonding

 A bond formed when two atoms


share one pair of electrons is
called a single bond.
 A carbon atom can also share two
or even three pairs of electrons
with another atom.
 In a double bond – represented by
two lines – atoms share two pairs
of electrons.
Functional groups

 Functional groups influence the characteristics of the molecules they


compose and the chemical reactions the molecules undergo.
 Hydroxyl
 Carboxyl
 Amino
 Phosphate
Large carbon molecules

 Monomer are smaller simples molecules.


 A polymer is a molecule that consist of repeated, linked units.
 The units may be identical or structurally related to each other.
 Large polymers are called macromolecules. (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins,
and nucleic acids)
Condensation reaction

 Monomers link to form polymers through a chemical reaction called


condensation reaction.
 Each time a monomer is added to a polymer, a water molecule is released.
 H+ and OH- are released to then combine to produce a water molecule H2O.
 In a hydrolysis reaction, water is used to break down a polymer.
Energy Currency

 Life processes require a constant supply of energy.


 Adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
 The covalent bonds between the phosphate groups are more unstable than
the other bonds in the ATP molecule because the phosphate groups are close
together and have negative charges.
 When a bond between the phosphate groups is broken, energy is released.
Review

1. How do organic and inorganic compounds differ?


2. How do carbon bonding properties contribute to the existence of a wide
variety of biological molecules?
3. Name four types of functional groups.
4. What role do functional groups play in the molecules in which they are found?
5. How are monomers, polymers, and macromolecules related to each other?
6. How is a polymer broken down?
7. Why is ATP referred to as the ‘energy currency’ in living things?

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