Intro to Biology
What is the smallest unit of organization for life?
The cell.
What are atoms?
The smallest units of matter that form all chemical substances and cannot be further broken down. They retain the element's chemical properties.
What is a functional group?
The components of organic molecules that are most often involved in chemical reactions. The number and arrangement of the functional groups give each molecule its unique properties.
What is a monomer?
Repeating units that serve as the building blocks of polymers.
What are amino acids?
These are the 20 different building blocks that make up proteins.
What are the three domains of life, and what types of cells characterize each? (unicellular or multicellular, prokaryotes or eukaryotes)
Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya.
Bacteria and Archaea are unicellular prokaryotes, while Eukarya includes unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes.
What is an isotope?
Atom of an element that has a different number of neutrons.
What makes carbon such a special element?
(remember that Organic Chemistry is entirely about carbon)
The versatility. It can form up to four bonds with other elements, making it an excellent building block for simple molecules, but also extremely complex compounds.
*remember: all organic molecules contain it.
What is a macromolecule and what are the 4 types?
Large polymers known for their size. The four types are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
What are nucleic acids?
DNA and RNA are the two main types of these macromolecules, responsible for the storage, expression, and transmission of genetic information.
What are the four levels of biological organization above individual organisms?
Population, Community, Ecosystem, and Biosphere.
What are hydrogen bonds?
Water molecules are bonded together by these specific types of bonds because of water's polarity.
What are hydrocarbons?
These organic molecules consist only of carbon and hydrogen, are nonpolar, hydrophobic, and poorly soluble in water.
What is a dehydration reaction?
This type of reaction occurs when two monomers bond together through the loss of a water molecule, forming a polymer.
What is a peptide bond?
Amino acids are joined together to form polypeptides through this type of bond, created during a dehydration reaction.
*It forms between a carboxyl group and an amino group.
What is an ecosystem?
Consists of all the living things in a particular area + the abiotic (nonliving) environment.
What is the difference between a cation and anion?
A cation has a net positive charge, because it has lost electrons. An anion has a net negative charge, because it has gained electrons.
What are isomers?
These are compounds with the same molecular formula but different structures and properties. Examples include structural, cis-trans, and enantiomers.
What are storage polysaccharides?
Long polymers of monosaccharides primarily used for energy storage, like starch in plants and glycogen in animals.
What are primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures?
The sequence of amino acids, coils and folds, interactions among side chains, and the arrangement of multiple polypeptide chains define these four levels of protein structure.
What are the eight characteristics of life?
Order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, adaptation, growth & development, regulation/homeostasis, energy processing, evolution.
What are buffers?
These substances minimize changes in the concentrations of H+ and OH– in a solution, often containing a weak acid and its corresponding base.
What are the four functional groups that you need to know for this exam?
Hydroxyl (OH), carboxyl (COOH), phosphate (PO4), and amino (NH2).
What are phospholipids?
They're lipid molecules that are amphipathic, meaning that they have both polar/hydrophilic phosphate heads and nonpolar/hydrophobic fatty acid tails.
What is RNA (ribonucleic acid)?
it is usually single-stranded, uses ribose as its sugar, and has uracil instead of thymine. There are also many forms of it (messenger RNA, ribosomal RNA, transfer RNA).