Synthesis and Degradation of Biomolecules
- There are four types of biomolecules - carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
- These are large macromolecules that are made up of repeating units of monomers, which are the single units and building blocks of biomolecules.
- Hence, the biomolecules are the polymers of monomers that are joined together via the covalent bonds.
- A homopolymer has only one type of monomer repeating 'n' number of times.
- A heteropolymer has more than one type of monomer repeating itself.
Synthesis of biomolecule - Dehydration Synthesis
- It refers to the condensation reaction wherein monomers are joined via a covalent bond to form the polymer.
- In this reaction, the monomers lose water, hence called dehydration.
- In this reaction, the hydrogen of one monomer combines with the hydroxyl group of another monomer and share electrons with each other to form a covalent bond.
- Glycosidic bonds in carbohydrates, peptide bonds in proteins and phosphodiester bonds in nucleic acids are the types of covalent bonds that are formed through dehydration synthesis.
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Peptide bond is an example of bond formed through dehydration synthesis reaction.
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