Chapter 3 Bio Vocab

monomer

A small molecule that can be combined with other similar or identical molecules to make a larger polymer.

glycocarbon

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triglyceride

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polysaccharide

A Polymer of carbohydrates , composed of many monosaccharides. Examples include starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin.

organic chemistry

A branch of chemistry concerned with compounds that have carbon as their central element.

monosaccharide

A building block or monomer of carbohydrates. Monosaccharides combine to form complex carbohydrates, or polysaccharides. Example = glucose.

phospholipid

A charged lipid molecule composed of two fatty acids, glycerol, and a phosphate group. The phospholipid's phosphate group is hydrophilic, while its fatty acid chains are hydrophobic. Phospholipids are are a major constituent of cell membranes.

cellulose

A complex carbohydrate that is the largest single component of plant cell walls. Cellulose is dense and rigid and provides structure for much of the natural world. Mammals cannot digest cellulose, so it serves as insoluble dietary fiber that helps move food through the digestive tract.

chitin

A complex carbohydrate that provides shape and strength to the external skeleton of arthropods, including insects, spiders, and crustaceans.

starch

A complex carbohydrate that serves as the major form of carbohydrate storage in plants. Starches found in such forms as potatoes, rice, carrots, and corn - are important sources of food for animals. In human nutrition, one of the the three principal classes of dietary carbohydrates, defined as a carbohydrate that is digestible. The other classes of dietary carbohydrates are simple sugars and fibers.

glycogen

A complex carbohydrate that serves as the primary form in which carbohydrates are stored in animals.

oil

A dietary lipid that is liquid at room temperature (e.g. olive oil, canola oil).

saturated fatty acid

A fatty acid with no double bonds between the carbon atoms of its hydrocarbon chain.

monounsaturated fatty acid

A fatty acid with one double bond between the carbon atoms of its hydrocarbon chain.

polyunsaturated fatty acid

A fatty acid with two or more double bonds between the carbon atoms of its hydrocarbon chain.

functional group

A group of atoms that confers a special property on a carbon-based molecule. Functional groups usually are transferred as unit among carbon-based molecules and often confer an electrical charge or polarity on the molecules they are part of.

polymer

A large molecule made up of many similar or indentical subunits, called monomers.

protein

A large polymer of amino acids, composed of one or more polypeptide chains. Proteins come in many forms including enzymes, structural proteins, and hormones.

wax

A lipid composed of a single fatty acid with a long chain alcohol.

lipid

A member of a class of biological molecules whose defining characteristic is their relative insolubility in water. Examples include triglycerides, cholesterol, steroids, and phospholipids.

steroid

A member of the class of lipid molecules that have four carbon rings as a central element in their structure. On steroid differs from another in accordance with the varying side chains that can be attached to these rings. Cholesterol, testosterone, and estrogen are steroid molecules.

lipoprotein

A molecule composed of both lipid and protein. Lipoproteins transport fat molecules through the blood stream to all parts of the body.

glycoprotein

A molecule that combines protein and carbohydrate. Glycoproteins play important roles as cell receptors and some types of hormones, among other functions.

fatty acid

A molecule, found in many lipids, composed of a hydrocarbon.

ribonucleic acid (RNA)

A nucleic acid that is active in the synthesis of proteins and that forms part of the structure of ribosomes. Varieties include, messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA ) rRNA.

phosphate group

A phosphorus atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms.

polypeptide

A series of amino acids linked in linear fashion. Polypeptide chains fold up to become proteins.

cholesterol

A steroid molecule that forms part of the outer membrane of all animal cells, and that acts as a precursor for many other steroids, among them the hormones testosterone and estrogen.

carbohydrate

An organic molecule that always contains carbon, oxygen and hydrogen and that, in many instances, contains nothing but carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Carbohydrates usually contain exactly twice as many hydrogen atoms as oxygen atoms. The building blocks or monomers of carbohydrates are monosaccharides, which combine to create the polymers of carbohydrates, the polysaccharides, such as starch and cellulose.

simple sugar

Glucose and fructose.

nucleotide

The building blocks of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA, consisting of a phosphate group, a sugar and a nitrogen containing base.

secondary structure

The structure proteins assume after having folded up.

tertiary structure

The large scale twists and turns in a protein conformation.

deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

The primary information-bearing molecule of life composed of two chains of nucleotides, linked together in the form of a double helix. Proteins are put together in accordance with the information encoded in DNA.

primary structure

The sequence of amino acids in a protein. This sequence dictates the final shape of the protein because electrochemical bonding and repulsion forces act on the structure to create the folded up protein.

quaternary structure

The way in which two or more polypeptide chains come together to form a protein.