AP Biology Unit 1 Review - Chemistry of Life

What you need to know for AP Bio Unit 1

Structure of Water and Hydrogen Bonding

• The sequence and make up of all molecules determine the property of that molecule.
• Water is a unique molecule that is polar due to an unequal distribution of charge. The properties of water and essential to the existence of life on earth.
• Water is able to form hydrogen bonds with other water molecules due to its polarity, and this contributes to the properties of cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension.

Elements of Life

• The elements of life are organized on the periodic table.
• The elements most common to biological molecules are carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus.

Introduction to Biological Macromolecules

• All living organisms are made up of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids.
• Monomers are bound together in order to form these polymers.
• Hydrolysis and dehydration synthesis are used to cleave and form covalent bonds between monomers 

Properties of Biological Molecules

• The way in which a polymer is assembled contributes to the overall function of that polymer. This includes:
• Nucleotides in nucleic acids, the amino acid order in proteins, sugar monomers in carbohydrates, and the saturation of lipids

Structure and Function of Biological Molecules

• Amino acids may be polar, nonpolar, sulfur-containing, acidic, or basic. The function of a protein depends on what amino acids make up a protein.
• The order of nucleotides in DNA make up its genetic code. DNA is antiparallel, forms a double helix, and contains hydrogen bonds between nucleotides.
• Lipids are nonpolar and hydrophobic. The presence of double bonds in lipids contributes to whether or not it is a saturated or unsaturated fat and contributes to its function.
• Carbohydrates are broken down to make energy. The complexity of the carbohydrate structure determines the amount of energy needed to break it down.

Nucleic Acids

• DNA and RNA are similar structures with the exceptions of a few key differences.
• DNA is usually double stranded whereas RNA is usually single stranded.
• DNA has a deoxyribose sugar, whereas RNA has a ribose sugar.
• DNA has thymine, adenine, cytosine, and guanine, whereas RNA replaces thymine with uracil.

Unit 1 Vocab

• Macromolecule
• Lipid
• Fatty acid
• Carbohydrate
• Monosaccharide
• Polysaccharide
• Peptide bond
• Amino acid
• Nucleic acid
• Nucleotide
• Sugar-phosphate bond
• Ribose
• Deoxyribose
• Hydrogen bond
• Polar
• Nonpolar
• Cohesion
• Adhesion
• Surface tension
• Hydrolysis
• Dehydration synthesis
• Monomer
• Polymer
• Phospholipid
• Semiconservative replication