Macromolecules ( Proteins and Nucleic Acids)

 

Protein is a polymer of amino acid monomers.  Proteins are the most elaborate and diverse of life's molecules. Proteins account for more than 50% of the dry weight of most cells, and they are instrumental in almost everything.

It is only in the nature of the variant (R) that amino acids differ from one another.  There are only about twenty amino acids that occur in the proteins of living organisms, although there are more than 2000 natural and artificially made amino acids.

There are ten essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the body and must be included in the diet.

 

Nucleic Acids

You will be introduced to nucleic acids. The details of nucleic acids will be covered later in the school year under the units on genetics.

The monomers of nucleic acids are nucleotides.  Each nucleotide is made of a phosphate group, linked to a 5-carbon sugar. Each nucleic acid chain has a backbone in which phosphate groups alternate with sugar molecules to form a covalently linked polymer. Attached to the sugar ring of each nucleotide by loss of a molecule is one of four nitrogenous bases: A, T, C and G.

If the proteins are the building materials of life, then nucleic acids are the blueprint.  The DNA has the instructions and directs the RNA in functioning of cells and the synthesis of proteins