Secondary Structure Of Macromolecules

Living organisms are composed of part water and part chemicals. The chemicals that help make up life are constructed mainly of carbon. A compound that has carbon in its composition is called an organic compound. Organic compounds also usually contain hydrogen atoms. Even though life is very complex, all large molecules that make up life are categorized into four large classes: lipids, protein, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. These four molecules are known as macromolecules, due to their large size. Atoms have diverse characters that depend on the atoms electronic configuration. Carbons unique configuration allows it to form bonds with up to four other atoms, and gives carbon a covalent compactivity with many other elements. The number of
A proteins secondary structure comes from the folding and coiling of the proteins polypeptide chains. A secondary structure can be a helix, or pleated sheet. Helix secondary structures is a coil formed together by hydrogen bonding, pleated sheets have two or more parts of the polypeptide chain lying beside one another. An overall shape of a polypeptide is referred to as a tertiary structure, that results from interactions between the R groups of amino acids. One interaction that shapes polypeptides is called a hydrophobic interaction, which occurs when a nonpolar substance is excluded by water. Disulfide bridges also can shape proteins, disulfide bridges form when two cystine monomers that have sulfhydryl groups are brought close together when the protein folds. Sometimes a protein can have more than two polypeptide chains all in one functional molecule, a quaternary structure can result from
DNA is put in the in the class of compounds known as nucleic acids, which are polymers made out of the monomers. The monomers that make the polymers that construct DNA are called nucleotides. Two types of nucleic acids allow living organisms to copy their own complex components to their offspring through reproduction; deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). Nucleic acids exist as polymers known as polynucleotides that all are made up of nucleotides. Nucleotides have only one phosphate group, and the part of a nucleotide without a phosphate group is known as a nucleoside. The nitrogenous base of a nucleotide will either have one or two rings that contain nitrogen atoms. There are two different categories of nitrogenous bases: pyrimidines and purines. Pyrimidines have one six-member ring of carbon and nitrogen atoms, while purines have a six-member ring connected to a five-member ring. Purines are also larger than pyrimidines. When sugar is found in DNA that sugar is referred to as deoxyribose, in RNA it is called ribose. Deoxyribose differs from ribose in that the second carbon ring of deoxyribose has no oxygen. DNA molecules are shaped in what is known as a double helix, and have two sugar-phosphate backbones that go in opposite directions, or that are