Biomolecules: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleic Acids

This document provides an overview of the different types of biomolecules including carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. It explains their structures, functions, and importance in living organisms. The document also discusses the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of proteins.

Running head: BIOMOLECULES
BIOMOLECULES
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Author’s Note:

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Carbohydrates
The basic units of carbohydrates are the
monosaccharaides or the sugars. These are
simultaneously made up of hexose and pentose
molecules with five or six carbon atoms
ultimately made up of carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen molecules
The three elements which make up the
carbohydrates are carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
They are usually present in the 1:2:1 ratio. They
are considered as the building blocks of the
carbohydrates (Ingoldsson et al., 2015).
The three different carbohydrates in complex form important to the plants are
 Starch- It is the main constituent of pant tissue and a polysaccharide functioning as
a carbohydrate store and an important constituent of the human diet.
 Cellulose- It is the important structural component of plant cells and most important
organic polymer. It is a cell wall component of plant cells.
 Sucrose- It is a disaccharide which would be composed of fructose and glucose. It
is found naturally in plants from which table sugar is found (Wu et al., 2015).
The three different complex carbohydrates form for the animal cells are
 Lactose- It is a disaccharide found mainly in the mammal’s milk constituting a
galactose and a glucose molecule. Lactose is digestible in the presence of lactase a
human enzyme present after weaning.
 Glycogen- It is a multi-branched polysaccharide of glucose serving as a energy
form in fungi, animals and bacteria which represents the main storage form of
glucose in the body.
 Maltose-This disaccharide is formed of two molecules of glucose and joined with
(1-4) bond. It is an intermediate carbohydrate in intestinal digestion (Brown et al.,
2014).

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Lipids
The different and most common lipid groups are
steroids, waxes, phospholipids, fats.
Lipids are made up of fatty acid constituting of a
carboxyl group at the end of linear hydrocarbon
chain with at least 4 carbon atoms.
 Saturated –These are the lipids where the main constituents or the fatty acids are
joined by all single bonds.
 Unsaturated – These are the lipids where the fatty acids are joined wither by double
or by triple bond in between the bonds among rest of the single bonds.
 Hydrophilic- That portion of a molecule where there is interactions with water, are
charge polarized and capable of hydrogen bonding.
 Hydrophobic – That portion of a molecule which has no interactions with water.
These are the non-polar ends and are the hydrophobic ends or hydrocarbon ends of
lipids.
Proteins
Basic structural units are the amino acids which
are combined into long chains and nine among
them are essential as they cannot be synthesized
by the body.
Proteins are made up of carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen and hydrogen. They are created through
the linking up of amino acids into protein links
called polypeptide chains.
The four primary structure are the primary, secondary , tertiary and quaternary structure of proteins:
Primary structure describes the main order for the linking of the amino acids to form the protein.
Secondary structure refers to the coiling or the main folding of the poly peptides for giving the
ultimate 3d shape of proteins.
Tertiary structure is the comprehensive 3 D structure of the polypeptide chain of proteins through
hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic bindings.

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Quaternary structure is the structure of the protein molecules forming interactions between the
multiple polypeptide chains (Schwarzenbach, & Gschwend, 2016).
Nucleic acid
Nucleic acids are made up of basic amino group,
acidic carboxyl group and the organic group in
the side chain.
Each nucleotide is made up of sugar molecule a
nitrogenous base and the phosphate group which
are again made up of nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorous, carbon, hydrogen.
1. DNA: A well-known genetic component is deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA. It
provides all the genomic data for a living system, which is contained in lengthy strings of genes.
The genes are located in the cell nucleus. The nucleobases forming the DNA are connected by a
polymer framework made of sugar. The hereditary characteristics of any living organism are the
combinations of the connection of such nucleobases (Davidson, 2012).
2. RNA:
The nuclei of living organisms also include ribonucleic acid, or RNA. Even though some kinds of
RNA virus contain only RNA, and not DNA. There have been several recognized classes of RNA
now, but for the whole action in a core which pertains to genetic data three main types of RNA
transfer, messenger RNA and ribosomal RNA are mainly responsible. RNA supplies the data,
creates fresh protein development and peptide bonds (Davidson, 2012).
3. Mutated Nucleic Acids:
DNA and RNA structures may be affected by mutations which have a catastrophic effect on the
living cell. Some of the changes in nucleic acids have led in medical circumstances, such as heart
disease, cystic fibrosis, some type of cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, Down's syndrome, Tay-Sachs,
and many more (Davidson, 2012).

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References
Brown, W. H., Poon, T., & Poon, T. (2014). Introduction to organic chemistry. John Wiley &
Sons.
Davidson, J. N. (2012). The biochemistry of the nucleic acids. Elsevier.
Ingólfsson, H. I., Lopez, C. A., Uusitalo, J. J., de Jong, D. H., Gopal, S. M., Periole, X., &
Marrink, S. J. (2014). The power of coarse graining in biomolecular
simulations. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Molecular Science, 4(3),
225-248.
Schwarzenbach, R. P., & Gschwend, P. M. (2016). Environmental organic chemistry. John
Wiley & Sons.
Wu, X., Ge, J., Yang, C., Hou, M., & Liu, Z. (2015). Facile synthesis of multiple enzyme-
containing metal–organic frameworks in a biomolecule-friendly
environment. Chemical Communications, 51(69), 13408-13411.