The ring can close in either of two ways, giving rise to anomeric forms, ( 5-OH adds across the carbonyl oxygen double bond.) Glucose exists mostly in ring structures. This is what you need to know about glucose, not its detailed structure. It has two important types of functional group:Ī carbonyl group (an aldehyde in glucose, some other sugars have a ketone group instead.) Monosaccharides polymerize to yield polysaccharides. Let's look at the three major classes of macromolecules to see how this works, and let's begin with carbohydrates. These macromolecules are polar because they are formed by head to tail condensation of polar monomers. WHEN THEY POLYMERIZE IN A HEAD-TO-TAIL FASHION, THE RESULTING POLYMERS ALSO HAVE HEADS AND TAILS. The main point of the first segment of this material is this: THE MONOMER UNITS OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES HAVE HEADS AND TAILS. We will conclude this section of the course with a consideration of denaturation and renaturation - the forces involved in loss of a macromolecule's native structure (that is, its normal 3-dimensional structure), and how that structure, once lost, can be regained. So you'll need to learn only one pattern, then apply that pattern to the other systems. The stories for proteins, monosaccharides and nucleotides are just variations on the same theme. We will investigate macromolecular interactions and how structural complementarity plays a role in them. The three-dimensional structure of each type of macromolecule will then be considered at several levels of organization. We will then look at the monomers in each major type of macromolecule to see what specific structural contributions come from each. We will describe the features of representative monomers, and see how the monomers join to form a polymer. In fact, the principles governing the organization of three-dimensional structure are common to all of them, so we will consider them together. Often they are treated separately in different segments of a course. There are three major types of biological macromolecules in mammalian systems.
This text is divided into five major sections:Ĭhemistry of the bonds in biological macromolecules Helicity in macromolecules Macromolecular folding Macromolecular interactions Denaturation Introduction