click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Unit 1
AP Biology Unit 1 Vocabulary - Cyran
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Adhesion | The clinging of one substance to another, such as water to plant cell walls by means of hydrogen bonds. |
| Cohesion | The linking together of like molecules, often by hydrogen bonds. |
| Hydrogen Bond | A type of weak chemical bond that is formed when the slightly positive hydrogen atom of a polar covalent bond in one molecule is attracted to the slightly negative atom of a polar covalent bond in another molecule or another region of the same molecule. |
| Polar | A polar molecule is a chemical species where the distribution of electrons between the covalently bonded atoms is not even. |
| Surface Tension | A measure of how difficult it is to stretch or break the surface of a liquid. Water has a high surface tension because of the hydrogen bonding of surface molecules. |
| Atom | The smallest unit of matter that retains the properties of an element. |
| Essential Element | A chemical element required for an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. |
| Macromolecule | A giant molecule formed by the joining of smaller molecules, usually by a dehydration reaction. Polysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids are macromolecules. |
| Cleavage | 1. The process of cytokinesis in animal cells, characterized by pinching of the plasma membrane. 2. The succession of rapid cell divisions without significant growth during early embryonic development that converts the zygote to a ball of cells. |
| Dehydration Synthesis | A chemical reaction in which two molecules become covalently bonded to each other with the removal of a water molecule. |
| Hydrolysis | A chemical reaction that breaks bonds between two molecules by the addition of water; functions in disassembly of polymers to monomers. |
| Monomer | The subunit that serves as a building block of a polymer. |
| Amino Acid | An organic molecule possessing both a carboxyl and an amino group. Amino acids serve as the monomers of polypeptides. |
| Amino Terminus/N-Terminus | The start of a protein or polypeptide group referring to the free amine group located at the end of a polypeptide. |
| Carbohydrates | A sugar (monosaccharide) or one of its dimers (disaccharides) or polymers (polysaccharides). |
| Carboxyl Terminus/C-Terminus | The end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). |
| Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) | Nucleic acid molecule, usually a double-stranded helix, in which each polynucleotide consists of nucleotide monomers with a deoxyribose sugar & the nitrogenous bases(ACGT), capable of being replicated & determining inherited structure of cell's proteins. |
| Deoxyribose | The sugar component of DNA nucleotides, having one fewer hydroxyl group than ribose, the sugar component of RNA nucleotides. |
| Hydrophilic | Having an affinity for water. |
| Hydrophobic | Having no affinity for water; tending to coalesce and form droplets in water. |
| Lipid | Any of a group of large biological molecules, including fats, phospholipids, and steroids, that mix poorly, if at all, with water. |
| Nitrogenous Base | A molecule that contains nitrogen and has chemical properties of a base. Nitrogenous bases in DNA are adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. Nitrogenous bases in RNA are adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine. |
| Nucleic Acid | A polymer (polynucleotide) consisting of many nucleotide monomers; serves as a blueprint for proteins and, through the actions of proteins, for all cellular activities. The two types are DNA and RNA. |
| Nucleotide | The building block of a nucleic acid, consisting of a five-carbon sugar covalently bonded to a nitrogenous base and one or more phosphate groups. |
| Phosphate | A chemical group consisting of a phosphorus atom bonded to four oxygen atoms; important in energy transfer. |
| Phospholipids | Lipids are glycerol joined to two fatty acids and a phosphate group. Hydrocarbon chains of fatty acids act as nonpolar, hydrophobic tails. The rest of the molecule acts as polar, hydrophilic head. They form bilayers that function as biological membranes. |
| Polymer | A long molecule consisting of many similar or identical monomers linked together by covalent bonds. |
| Protein | A biologically functional molecule consisting of one or more polypeptides folded and coiled into a specific three-dimensional structure. |
| R group | The R group is a side chain specific to each amino acid that confers particular chemical properties to that amino acid. |
| Ribonucleic Acid | Type of nucleic acid with a polynucleotide made up of nucleotide monomers with a ribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, & uracil; usually one-stranded; functions in protein synthesis, gene regulation, & genome of some viruses. |
| Ribose | The sugar component of RNA nucleotides. |
| Saturated Fats | A fatty acid in which all carbons in the hydrocarbon tail are connected by single-bonds, thus maximizing the number of hydrogen atoms that are attached to the carbon skeleton. |
| Unsaturated Fats | A fatty acid that has one or more double bonds between carbons in the hydrocarbon tail. Such bonding reduces the number of hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon skeleton. |
| 3' | This carbon end of DNA has a terminal hydroxyl (OH) group attached to it from the deoxyribose. |
| 5' | This carbon end of DNA has the terminal phosphate group attached to it from the deoxyribose. |
| Alpha Helice | A coiled region constituting one form of the secondary structure of proteins, arising from a specific pattern of hydrogen bonding between atoms of the polypeptide backbone (not the side chains). |
| Antiparallel - in regards to DNA | Referring to the arrangement of the sugar-phosphate backbones in a DNA double helix (they run in opposite 5' ---> 3' directions). |
| Beta-Sheet | One form of the secondary structure of proteins in which the polypeptide chain folds back and forth. Two regions of the chain lie parallel to each other and are held together by hydrogen bonds between atoms of the polypeptide backbone(not the side chains) |
| Covalent Bond | A type of strong chemical bond in which two atoms share one or more pairs of valence electrons. |
| Double Helix | The form of native DNA, referring to its two adjacent antiparallel polynucleotide strands wound around an imaginary axis into a spiral shape. |
| Peptide | The covalent bond between the carboxyl group on one amino acid and the amino group on another, formed by a dehydration reaction. |
| Polypeptide | A polymer of many amino acids linked together by peptide bonds. |
| Primary Structure | The level of protein structure referring to the specific linear sequence of amino acids. |
| Secondary Structure | Regions of repetitive coiling or folding of the polypeptide backbone of a protein due to hydrogen bonding between constituents of the backbone (not the side chains). |
| Subunit | Each amino acid chain that an enzyme is composed of is called a subunit. Most enzymes have more than one chain. |
| Synthesis | The production of a substance by combining simpler substances through a chemical process. |
| Tertiary Structure | The overall shape of a protein molecule due to interactions of amino acid side chains, including hydrophobic interactions, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, & disulfide bridges. |
| Sugar-Phosphate Backbone | It consists of alternating sugar and phosphate groups, and defines the directionality of the molecule. It also forms the structural framework of nucleic acids like DNA & RNA. The sugar is the 3' end, and the phosphate is the 5' end of each nucleotide. |