Monomers
The subunit that serves as a building block of a polymer.
What is a monomer?
A chemical group consisting of a nitrogen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms.
-NH2
What is an amino group?
A large molecule consisting of many identical or similar monomers linked together by covalent bonds.
What is a polymer?
A chemical reaction in which two molecules become covalently bonded to each other with the removal of a water molecule.
What is a dehydration reaction?
A structural polysaccharide of plant cell walls composed of glucose monomers. Cellulose molecules are linked by hydrogen bonds into cable-like fibrils.
What is cellulose?
The simplest carbohydrate; a simple sugar with a molecular formula that is generally some multiple of CH2O. Monosaccharides are the monomers of disaccharides and polysaccharides.
What is a monosaccharide?
A chemical group consisting of a carbon atom linked by a double bond to an oxygen atom.
-C=O
What is a carbonyl group?
Organic compounds with the same molecular formula but different structures and, therefore, different properties.
What is an isomer?
A chemical reaction that breaks bonds between two molecules by the addition of water; a process by which polymers are broken down and an essential part of digestion.
What is hydrolysis?
A storage polysaccharide in plants; a polymer of glucose.
What is a starch?
A building block of nucleic acids, consisting of a five-carbon sugar covalently bonded to a nitrogenous base and one or more phosphate groups.
What is a nucleotide?
A chemical group consisting of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom and also bonded to a hydroxyl group.
-COOH
What is a carboxyl group?
An organic compound composed only of the elements carbon and hydrogen.
What is a hydrocarbon?
"Water-fearing"; pertaining to nonpolar molecules (or parts of molecules) that do not dissolve in water.
What is hydrophobic?
A steroid that is an important component of animal cell membranes and that acts as a precursor molecule for the synthesis of other steroids, such as hormones.
What is cholesterol?
An organic molecule containing a carboxyl group and an amino group; serves as the monomer of proteins.
What is an amino acid?
A chemical group consisting of an oxygen atom bonded to a hydrogen atom.
-OH
What is a hydroxyl group?
A chemical compound containing the element carbon and usually the element hydrogen.
What is an organic compound?
"Water-loving"; pertaining to polar or charged molecules (or parts of molecules) that are soluble in water.
What is hydrophilic?
A structural polysaccharide found in many fungal cell walls and in the exoskeletons of arthropods.
What is chitin?
A double-stranded helical nucleic acid molecule consisting of nucleotide monomers with deoxyribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Capable of replicating, DNA is an organism's genetic material. See also gene.
What is DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid)?
A chemical group consisting of a carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms.
-CH3
What is a methyl group?
A macromolecule, usually a protein, that serves as a biological catalyst, changing the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.
What is an enzyme?
Member of the class of biological molecules consisting of single-monomer sugars (monosaccharides), two-monomer sugars (disaccharides), and polymers (polysaccharides).
What is a carbohydrate?
a pair of molecules that exist in two forms that are mirror images of one another but cannot be superimposed one upon the other
What is an enantiomer?