Lecture Materials
Unit IV: Carbohydrates and Lipids
Carbohydrates are one of the four major classes of biomolecules, which include the proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. In terms of total mass, carbohydrates make up the largest fraction of biomolecules in the biosphere. Carbohydrates have the basic chemical formula (CH2O)n and derive their diversity of structure from the the multiple stereoisomers that they can form. They play many important biological roles, including sources and storage forms of chemical energy, components of nucleic acids, and structural roles such as cell walls. The are also found covalently bonded to proteins and lipids, where they play important roles in cell-cell communication.
- Lecture 7 Overheads
- Reading: Berg et al., Chapter 11: Carbohydrates
- Problem Assignments
Lecture 8 - Lipids and Cell Membranes
Like carbohydrates, lipids are one of the four major classes of biomolecules, which also include the proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Lipids are grouped not according to a chemical structure, as is the case for the other four classes, but rather they are grouped according to a physical property. Lipids comprise the molecules in a cell that can be extracted into non-polar solvents, which means they are non-polar, hydrophobic molecules. We will see that this does not mean that they do not contain hydrophilic functional groups, but all lipids molecules do contain large, hydrophobic regions. With cells being made up of largely water, this produces some very interesting and important cellular structure, not the least of which are the cell membranes.
- Lecture 8 Overheads
- Reading: Berg et al., Chapter 12: Lipids and Cell Membranes
- Cell Size and Scale (Univeristy of Utah)
- Problem Assignments