Question

how does biological macromolecules form from monomers?

Answer 1

well. according to the naacpwymca The body uses carbohydrates as “fast fuel.” It is the first macromolecule used to obtain energy for the body because very little energy is required to break down carbohydrates. You will learn how it is used to create energy in the Photosynthesis and Respiration lab. Carbohydrates are sugar molecules. They are made up of the base elements C, H and O in a 1:2:1 ratio. The simplest carbohydrate is a monosaccharide (a simple sugar). An example of a simple sugar is glucose, which is created during photosynthesis. Monosaccharides are covalently bonded together to create more complex sugars. A disaccharide is two covalently bonded simple sugars or monosaccharides. A polysaccharide is the carbohydrate polymer and consists of several monosaccharides bonded together. A common polysaccharide, the one you will look at in lab, is starch. Starch is a storage polysaccharide found in plants. Another plant polysaccharide is cellulose, a major component of a plant’s cell wall. In lab you will test for the presence of glucose, a monosaccharide carbohydrate, and for starch, a polysaccharide carbohydrate, in a series of liquid substances.

To test for the presence of glucose you will use the Benedict’s Test for Reducing Sugars (monosaccharides). Benedict’s reagent is clear blue (from the presence of cupric copper ions, Cu++ ) but when combined and heated to boiling with a substance containing glucose in a chain form, the cupric ions are reduced to a cuprous form (Cu+ ) and then oxidized to form copper oxide (Cu2O). Copper oxide is a brownish-orange substance that is insoluble in water. Therefore, a positive reaction in a Benedict’s Test is the change of the clear light blue solution to an opaque orange-brown solution in a boiling water bath. This color change indicates the presence of Glucose in a given solution.

Answer 2

Biological macromolecules are defined as large molecules made up of smaller organic molecules. There are four classes of macromolecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. In this lab, you will learn about the first three, nucleic acids will be covered in a later lab (DNA Structure). The base elements of carbohydrates and lipids are Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). Protein is also made up of these base elements but it also contains Nitrogen (N). When viewing the chemical structures of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins you can distinguish proteins from the other two by the presence of N in its chemical structure.