BIOL 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Alpha And Beta Carbon, Dehydration Reaction, Monomer

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 1010
• Professor: M.Mc Carville

Document Summary

A polymer is a long molecule consisting of many similar or identical building blocks linked by covalent bonds. The repeating units that serve as the building blocks of a polymer are smaller molecules called monomers. In cells, enzymes are specialized macromolecules that speed up chemical reaction. Monomers are connected by a reaction in which two molecules are covalently bonded to each other, with the loss of a water molecule. Monomers assembled to polymers in the dehydration process. Polymers are disassembled to monomers by hydrolysis a process that is the reverse of dehydration. The molecular logic of life: small molecules common to all organisms are ordered into unique macromolecules: 5. 2 carbohydrates serve as fuel and building material. Carbohydrates include both sugars and polymers of sugars. Plants store starch, a polymer of glucose monomers as granules within cellular structures known as plastids which include chloroplasts. Synthesizing starch enables the plant to stockpile surplus glucose.