Synthesis and Degradation of Biomolecules MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers

Synthesis and Degradation of Biomolecules

• There are four types of biomolecules - carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
• These are large macromolecules that are made up of repeating units of monomers, which are the single units and building blocks of biomolecules.
• Hence, the biomolecules are the polymers of monomers that are joined together via the covalent bonds. 
• A homopolymer has only one type of monomer repeating 'n' number of times. 
• A heteropolymer has more than one type of monomer repeating itself.

Synthesis of  biomolecule - Dehydration Synthesis

• It refers to the condensation reaction wherein monomers are joined via a covalent bond to form the polymer.
• In this reaction, the monomers lose water, hence called dehydration. 
• In this reaction, the hydrogen of one monomer combines with the hydroxyl group of another monomer and share electrons with each other to form a covalent bond.
• Glycosidic bonds in carbohydrates, peptide bonds in proteins and phosphodiester bonds in nucleic acids are the types of covalent bonds that are formed through dehydration synthesis.

Breakdown of a biomolecule - Hydrolysis

• When a biomolecule is broken down into its constituent monomers, the reaction is called hydrolysis reaction.
• A water molecule is used to perform the breakdown of the biomolecule. 
• During hydrolysis, the polymer is broken into two components: one part gains a hydrogen atom (H+) and the other gains a hydroxyl molecule (OH–) from a split water molecule.