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Why Biomolecules are important for the life?


Why Biomolecules are important for life?





Answer:

Biomolecules are basically organic molecules that include carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. They are important for the survival of living cells. Moreover, among biomolecules, nucleic acids, namely DNA and RNA, have the unique function of storing an organism's genetic code - the sequence of nucleotides that determines the amino acid sequence of proteins, which are of critical importance to life on Earth. The diversity in their shape and structure provides diversity in their functions.

Proteins

Proteins are the primary building materials of the body. Your hair, skin, muscles, and organs are composed mostly of proteins. Proteins are strong yet flexible, and they have a complex 3-D structure. Amino acids are the basic building blocks of proteins. There are 20 amino acids that are important to humans, and all proteins are made from combinations of these subunits. Chains of amino acids are called peptides. When food is consumed, the proteins are broken down into their constituent amino acids and rebuilt into the proteins of the body. However, excess amino acids are not stored for future use, and the body only starts to break down its own proteins during starvation, when ordinary sources of fuel are not available.

Fats (lipids)

Fats are the primary long-term energy storage molecules of the body. Fats are very compact and lightweight, so they are an efficient way to store excess energy. Fat is made up of glycerol. Most of the energy from fats comes from the many carbon bonds in these long, fatty acid chains. Fatty acids connect to glycerol in the region where each molecule has an -O-H group. Two hydrogens and one oxygen are split off, forming H-O-H (water) and the long carbon chain is attached to the glycerol. Each glycerol can carry up to three fatty acid chains,. When each fatty acid is attached to glycerol, a water molecule is produced. To reverse the reaction and split the fatty acid from the glycerol, just add water and energy.

Carbohydrates

Glucose, a 6-carbon sugar, is a simple carbohydrate or "mono-saccharide." Sugar is a source of quick energy for the body because it is easily metabolized (broken down). Larger, more "complex carbohydrates" are made by stringing together chains of glucose subunits into di-saccharides, tri-saccharides, and poly-saccharides. Starch is a complex carbohydrate that plants create for energy storage, and is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet. Foods like potatoes, corn, rice, and wheat are rich in starch. Animals break the starches back down into glucose subunits and convert the glucose into glycogen for storage. Glycogen is a complex storage molecule made from glucose using insulin. Diabetics, who lack insulin, cannot make glycogen so they excrete excess sugar in their urine. Glucose is broken down through a process called glycolysis (lysis means splitting) in order to release energy stored in the carbon-carbon bonds.

Nucleic Acids

These molecules contain the genetic code, which has all the information necessary to build the body. The basic unit is called a nucleotide, which is composed of a sugar-phosphate backbone attached to one of four nitrogenous bases; cytosine, guanine, adenine, or thymine. C joins to G, and G to C by three hydrogen bonds, indicated by the dotted lines. A joins T and T to A by two hydrogen bonds.

 

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