What structural features are common to proteins nucleic acid

What structural features are common to proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbs? What features allow you to differentiate between them?

Solution

What structural features are common to proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbs?

1.     These 4 are basic building blocks of life and body. All of these are responsible for millions of processes in the organism.

2.     All 4 of them are in macromolecular form only.

Monomer

Polymer

Examples

Molecules

Amino acids

Protein

Elastin

C,H,O and N

Nucleotide

Nucleic acids

DNA/ RNA

C,H,O and N

Fatty acids

Lipds

Oils

C,H,O and N

Monosacharides

Carbohydrates

Starch

C,H,O and N

3.     Most common among all of them is C,H,O and N molecules.

What features allow you to differentiate between them?

If they are broken or catalyzed they form individual monomers, which are different from one another, both in forms of function and structure

Polymer

Monomer

Functions

Structure

Protein

Amino acids

Proper metabolism

Primary, secondary, Tertiary proteins

Nucleic acids

Nucleotide

Hereditary material

DNA/ RNA

Lipds

Fatty acids

Heat producers, shock absorbers, oily

Mono-acyl-glycerols, saturated and unsaturated

Carbohydrates

Monosacharides

Instant energy, sweet mostly

Mono, Poly, oligosachharides