Cell Chemistry

Name the cellular macromolecules, and have an understanding of their structure and function.

See the end of this earlier post: Diffusion, osmosis, enzymes and organic compounds relevant to human bio

Define an atom, electron, neutron and proton.

See previous post: Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table

Have a general understanding of the different types of bonds and relative bond energies.

See previous post: Intermolecular Bonding

For this unit, you also need to know about hydrophobic interactions and coordinate links. These aren't really bonds per se, but they can be important. In hydrophobic interactions, hydrophobic parts of a molecule tend to cluster together and "hide" on the inside of a molecule. This often occurs as part of the formation of the tertiary protein structure, as mentioned here. Coordinate links form between metals and groups containing O and N.

Recognise the functional groups given.

See previous posts: Basics of Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry- Some New Functional Groups.

Other groups that we need to know are -SH (sulfhydryl), -CH3 (methyl), -S-S- (disulfide), -PO4 (phosphate) and -COCH3 (acetyl).

Have a basic understanding of types of organics.

See the end of this post that I referenced above: Diffusion, osmosis, enzymes and organic compounds relevant to human bio

Have an understanding of the importance of isomers.

Isomers are basically molecules that have the same atoms, but in different locations. The main types of isomers are structural isomers, in which the functional groups are in a different place, and stereoisomers, which are molecules that are mirror images of each other but aren't exactly the same. I've written more about stereoisomers in this earlier post: Carbohydrates- Structure, Chemistry and Biological Function. I have written about the importance of isomers in this post: Stereochemistry.

Define the properties of water.

See previous post: Water, Sodium, Potassium and Chlorine

Define mole, molarity, acid, bases, pH, buffers.

For mole and molarity, see this post for way too much information: Simple Calculations Involving Moles

For acids and bases, see this post: Acids and Bases Part 1

For pH, see here for an information overload: Amino Acids- Acid Base Chemistry

For buffers, see here: Peptides- Charge and Isoelectric Points, Buffering Capacity

Know the macromolecule types and their molecular building blocks.

Once again, see this post: Diffusion, osmosis, enzymes and organic compounds relevant to human bio