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Carbon Skeletons: 106 PANEL 2-1: Chemical Bonds and Groups Commonly Encountered in Biological Molecules

Carbon can form chains, branches, or rings through covalent bonds. It combines with hydrogen to form hydrocarbons, which are nonpolar and insoluble in water. Double bonds in carbon chains stabilize the structure through resonance. Biological compounds also contain carbon bonded to oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or phosphorus in functional groups like alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amines, amides, and phosphates. These groups influence a molecule's properties and ability to form bonds with other compounds.

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53 views

Carbon Skeletons: 106 PANEL 2-1: Chemical Bonds and Groups Commonly Encountered in Biological Molecules

Carbon can form chains, branches, or rings through covalent bonds. It combines with hydrogen to form hydrocarbons, which are nonpolar and insoluble in water. Double bonds in carbon chains stabilize the structure through resonance. Biological compounds also contain carbon bonded to oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or phosphorus in functional groups like alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amines, amides, and phosphates. These groups influence a molecule's properties and ability to form bonds with other compounds.

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nrf2
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106

PANEL 21: Chemical Bonds and Groups Commonly Encountered in Biological Molecules

CARBON SKELETONS
Carbon has a unique role in the cell because of its ability to form strong covalent bonds with other carbon atoms. Thus carbon atoms can join to form chains.

or branched trees C C C C

or rings C C C C C C

C C C C C C C C C C C C

also written as

also written as

also written as

COVALENT BONDS
A covalent bond forms when two atoms come very close together and share one or more of their electrons. In a single bond one electron from each of the two atoms is shared; in a double bond a total of four electrons are shared. Each atom forms a fixed number of covalent bonds in a defined spatial arrangement. For example, carbon forms four single bonds arranged tetrahedrally, whereas nitrogen forms three single bonds and oxygen forms two single bonds arranged as shown below. Atoms joined by two or more covalent bonds cannot rotate freely around the bond axis. This restriction is a major influence on the three-dimensional shape of many macromolecules.

HYDROCARBONS
Carbon and hydrogen combine together to make stable compounds (or chemical groups) called hydrocarbons. These are nonpolar, do not form hydrogen bonds, and are generally insoluble in water.

H H C H
methane

H H H C H
methyl group

Double bonds exist and have a different spatial arrangement.

H2C CH2

ALTERNATING DOUBLE BONDS


The carbon chain can include double bonds. If these are on alternate carbon atoms, the bonding electrons move within the molecule, stabilizing the structure by a phenomenon called resonance. Alternating double bonds in a ring can generate a very stable structure.

H2C CH2 H2C CH2 H H H H H H H2C CH2 H2C CH2 H H H3C


part of the hydrocarbon tail of a fatty acid molecule

C C

C C C

C C C

H H H H benzene
often written as

H2C CH2

the truth is somewhere between these two structures C C C C C C C C C C

CHAPTER 2 PANELS

107

CO CHEMICAL GROUPS
Many biological compounds contain a carbon bonded to an oxygen. For example, alcohol H C H aldehyde C H ketone C C C carboxylic acid C OH esters O C C OH acid alcohol HO C C C O ester C O The COOH is called a carboxyl group. In water this loses an H+ ion to _ become COO . O is called a The CO carbonyl group. O OH The OH is called a hydroxyl group.

CN CHEMICAL GROUPS
Amines and amides are two important examples of compounds containing a carbon linked to a nitrogen. Amines in water combine with an H+ ion to become positively charged. H C N H H+ C N H H H+

Amides are formed by combining an acid and an amine. Unlike amines, amides are uncharged in water. An example is the peptide bond that joins amino acids in a protein. O C OH acid amine H2N C C N H C amide O H2O

Nitrogen also occurs in several ring compounds, including important constituents of nucleic acids: purines and pyrimidines. NH2 H N C C N H H

Esters are formed by a condensation reaction between acid and an alcohol. O H2O O

cytosine (a pyrimidine)

SULFHYDRYL GROUP

The

SH is called a sulfhydryl group. In the amino acid cysteine the sulfhydryl group may exist in the reduced form, C SH C S S C or more rarely in an oxidized, cross-bridging form,

PHOSPHATES
Inorganic phosphate is a stable ion formed from phosphoric acid, H3PO4. It is often written as Pi. O HO P O
_

Phosphate esters can form between a phosphate and a free hydroxyl group. Phosphate groups are often attached to proteins in this way. O O O
_ _

OH

HO

P O

P O
_

H2O

also written as

The combination of a phosphate and a carboxyl group, or two or more phosphate groups, gives an acid anhydride. H2O O O O C OH HO P O
_

C H2O O

O P O
_

high-energy acyl phosphate bond (carboxylicphosphoric acid anhydride) found in some metabolites

also written as

O C O
P

O O P O
_

O OH HO P O
_

H2O O
_

O O P O
_

O O P O
_

phosphoanhydridea highenergy bond found in molecules such as ATP

also written as

H2O

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