BIOL107 Lecture : Biology 107.docx

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Biology (Biological Sciences)
• Course: BIOL107
• Professor: Frank Nargang

Document Summary

Living cells contains simple molecules of each class. They also contain large polymers of classes 1, 3, and 4. When polymers of any class are extremely large they are called macromolecules: carbohydrates. Most common monosaccharides contain 3, 5, or 6 carbon atoms. Disaccharides: sugars made from 2 joined monosaccharides, eg. Polysaccharides: tend to be macromolecules, 100"s or 1000"s of joined monomers, eg. Used by plants to store glucose surplus: eg. Major component of plant cell walls: eg. Bonds between the monosaccharides are the result of a dehydration reaction (or condensation reaction) In fact, for all classes of molecules that we discussed, the monomer units are joined to each other (or to existing polymers) by dehydration reactions. Dehydration reactions involve the loss of a water molecule. This reaction can also occur in the opposite direction (ie. removing a monomer unit from an existing polymer: called hydrolysis a water molecule is added to break the bond, eg.