CHEMISTRY THE CENTRAL SCIENCE

24 THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE: ORGANIC AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

24.6 INTRODUCTION TO BIOCHEMISTRY

The functional groups discussed in Section 24.4 generate a vast array of molecules with very specific chemical reactivities. Nowhere is this specificity more apparent than in biochemistry—the chemistry of living organisms.

Before we discuss specific biochemical molecules, we can make some general observations. Many biologically important molecules are quite large, because organisms build biomolecules from smaller, simpler substances readily available in the biosphere. The synthesis of large molecules requires energy because most of the reactions are endother-mic. The ultimate source of this energy is the Sun. Animals have essentially no capacity for using solar energy directly, however, and so depend on plant photosynthesis to supply the bulk of their energy needs. (Section 23.3)

In addition to requiring large amounts of energy, living organisms are highly organized. In thermodynamic terms, this high degree of organization means that the entropy of living systems is much lower than that of the raw materials from which the systems formed. Thus, living systems must continuously work against the spontaneous tendency toward increased entropy.

In the “Chemistry and Life” essays that appear throughout this text, we have introduced you to some important biochemical applications of fundamental chemical ideas. The remainder of this chapter will serve as only a brief introduction to other aspects of biochemistry. Nevertheless, you will see some patterns emerging. Hydrogen bonding (Section 11.2), for example, is critical to the function of many biochemical systems, and the geometry of molecules (Section 9.1) can govern their biological importance and activity. Many of the large molecules in living systems are polymers (Section 12.8) of much smaller molecules. These biopolymers can be classified into three broad categories: proteins, polysaccharides (carbohydrates), and nucleic acids. Lipids are another common class of molecules in living systems, but they are usually large molecules, not biopolymers.