It is said that elemental composition of living organisms and that of inanimate objects (like earth’s crust) are similar in the sense that all the major elements are present in both. Then what would be the difference between these two groups? Choose a correct answer from among the following:
A. Living organisms have more gold in them than inanimate objects
B. Living organisms have more water in their body than inanimate objects
C. Living organisms have more carbon, oxygen and hydrogen per unit mass than inanimate objects.
D. Living organisms have more calcium in them than inanimate objects.
Many elements are found in living organisms either free or in the form of compounds. Which of the following is not found in living organisms?
A. Silicon
B. Magnesium
C. Iron
D. Sodium
Fe- present in haemoglobin in humans, in plants helps in enzyme functioning and related with PS system.
Na- Osmolytic balance and Mg- plays role in photosynthesis, phosphorylation and glycolysis.
Aminoacids, have both an amino group and a carboxyl group in their structure. Which one of the following is an amino acid?
A. Formic acid
B. Glycerol
C. Glycolic Acid
D. Glycine
It is a neutral or uncharged amino acid.
An aminoacid under certain conditions have both positive and negative charges simultaneously in the same molecule. Such a form of aminoacid is called
A. Acidic form
B. Basic form
C. Aromatic form
D. Zwitterionic form
At physiological pH, -COOH group dissociates to form a negatively charged carboxylate ion –COO- and amino acid gets protonated to form positively charged NH3+ forming zwitter ion.
Sugars are technically called carbohydrates, referring to the fact that their formulae are only multiple of C(H2O). Hexoses therefore have six carbons, twelve hydrogens and six oxygen atoms. Glucose is a hexose. Choose from among the following another hexose.
A. Fructose
B. Erythrose
C. Ribulose
D. Ribose
Its a hexose (6 C atoms) sugar, with ketonic group.
When you take cells or tissue pieces and grind them with an acid in a mortar and pestle, all the small biomolecules dissolve in the acid. Proteins, polysaccharides and nucleic acids are insoluble in mineral acid and get precipitated. The acid soluble compounds include aminoacids, nucleosides, small sugars etc. When one adds a phosphate group to a nucleoside, one gets another acid soluble biomolecule called
A. Nitrogen base
B. Adenine
C. Sugar phosphate
D. Nucleotide
Nucleotide= N-bases+Sugar+Phosphate
Nucleotides= Nucleoside + Phosphate group
When we homogenise any tissue in an acid the acid soluble pool represents
A. Cytoplasm
B. Cell membrane
C. Nucleus
D. Mitochondria
Cytoplasm is known to contain all the organic compounds.
In cytoplasm all the cell organelles are present.
The most abundant component of living organisms is
A. Protein
B. Water
C. Sugar
D. Nucleic acid
Water constitutes about 80% of the cell volume.
A homopolymer has only one type of building block called monomer repeated ‘n’ number of times. A heteropolymer has more than one type of monomer. Proteins are heteropolymers usually made of
A. 20 types of monomers
B. 40 types of monomers
C. 30 types of monomers
D. only one type of monomer
There are 300 amino acids in nature, however, only 20 amino acids are present in proteins, therefore 20 amino acids combine in different ways to form protein.
Proteins perform many physiological functions. For example, some functions as enzymes. Which of the following represents an additional function that some proteins discharge?
A. Antibiotics
B. Pigment conferring colour to skin
C. Pigments making colours of flowers
D. Hormones
Hormones are the chemical messengers which are synthesized by endocrine glands.
Hormones like growth hormone, prolactin etc. are the examples of proteinous hormones.
Glycogen is a homopolymer made of
A. Glucose units
B. Galactose units
C. Ribose units
D. Aminoacids
Glycogen polymer is made up of repeating units of alpha- glucose units.
The number of ‘ends’ in a glycogen molecule would be
A. Equal to the number of branches plus one
B. Equal to the number of branch points
C. One
D. Two, one on the left side and another on the right side
Glycogen is a multibranched polysaccharides. Has 30000 glucose residues.
The primary structure of a protein molecule has
A. Two ends
B. One end
C. Three ends
D. No ends
Primary structure of the protein is the linear sequence of amino acids joined by peptide linkage.
It has two ends C terminus with –COOH group, and N terminus with –NH2 group.
Enzymes are biocatalysts. They catalyse biochemical reactions. In general they reduce activation energy of reactions. Many physico-chemical processes are enzyme mediated. Which of the following reactions is not engyme-mediated in biological system?
A. Dissolving CO2 in water
B. Untwining the two strands of DNA
C. Hydrolysis of sucrose
D. Formation of peptide bond
Helicase helps in unwinding of DNA helix.
Sucrose is hydrolysed into glucose and fructose with the help of enzyme sucrase.
Peptidyl transferase is involved in peptide bond formation.
Medicines are either man made (i.e., synthetic) or obtained from living organisms like plants, bacteria, animals etc. and hence the latter are called natural products. Sometimes natural products are chemically altered by man to reduce toxicity or side effects. Write against each of the following whether they were initially obtained as a natural product or as a synthetic chemical.
a. Penicillin ___________________________
b. Sulfonamide ___________________________
c. Vitamin C ___________________________
d. Growth Hormone ___________________________
A. Penicillin- Natural product (obtained from fungus P. notatum).
B. sulphonamide- Synthetic product
C. Vitamin C- Natural product
D. Growth Hormone- Natural product
Select an appropriate chemical bond among ester bond, glycosidic bond, peptide bond and hydrogen bond and write against each of the following.
a. Polysaccharide ___________________________
b. Protein ___________________________
c. Fat ___________________________
d. Water ___________________________
A. Polysaccharides – Glycosidic bond, formed by elimination of water molecule.
b. Protein- peptide bond, it is the -CO-NH- BOND formed by elimination of water molecules.
c. Fats- ester bond, derived from an acid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one –OH (hydroxyl) group is replaced by an –O–alkyl (alkoxy) group
d. Water- H-bond, formed between hydrogen of one water molecule and oxygen of the other water molecule.
Write the name of any one amino acid, sugar, nucleotide and fatty acid.
• Amino acid- Glycine
• Sugar- Glucose
• Nucleotide- Adenosine
• Fatty acid- Oleic acid
Reaction given below is catalysed by oxidoreductase between two substrates A and A’, complete the reaction. A reduced + A’ oxidised
How are prosthetic groups different from co-factors?
• Cofactors are the no proteineous, may be organic or inorganic constituent of enzyme.
• Prosthetic group belongs to organic co factors, remains tightly binded with apoenzymes.
Glycine and Alanine are different with respect to one substituent on the α -carbon. What are the other common substituent groups?
-COOH, -NH2, and –H are the common substituents.
Starch, Cellulose, Glycogen, Chitin are polysaccharides found among the following. Choose the one appropriate and write against each.
Cotton fibre __________________________
Exoskeleton of cockroach __________________________
Liver __________________________
Peeled potato __________________________
Cotton fibre- cellulose [more than 90%].
Exoskeleton of cockroach- chitin
Liver- glycogen
Peeled potato- starch
Enzymes are proteins. Proteins are long chains of aminoacids linked to each other by peptide bonds. Aminoacids have many functional groups in their structure. These functional groups are, many of them at least, ionisable. As they are weak acids and bases in chemical nature, this ionization is influenced by pH of the solution. For many enzymes, activity is influenced by surrounding pH. This is depicted in the curve below, explain briefly.
• Enzymes show highest activity at an optimum pH.
• The dependence of enzyme on pH is due to the presence of charged amino acid at its active site, variation causes changes in charge of amino acid.
• Hence, in both the cases either when the pH is less than the optimum pH or greater than it, enzymetic activity decreases.
• Therefore, we get a bell shaped curve of ezymetic activity against pH.
Is rubber a primary metabolite or a secondary metabolite? Write four sentences about rubber.
Rubber is a secondary metabolite.
It is considered as a secondary metabolite, due to its unknown function in plants physiology.
Economically rubber is of great importance.
It is sticky, when obtained from the plant as exude.
It is used for synthesis of various products like tyre, eraser etc.
Schematically represent primary, secondary and tertiary structures of a hypothetical polymer say for example a protein
Nucleic acids exhibit secondary structure, justify with example.
• DNA and RNA are known to exist in form of helix.
• DNA forms double helix and RNA exist in a single stranded helical form.
• As helix is considered to be a secondary structure, therefore, nucleic acids exist in secondary structure.
Comment on the statement “living state is a non-equilibrium steady state to be able to perform work”.
• Equilibrium is the state of stability, in which work done is assumed to be zero.
• As biological system always performs tasks, it is considered to be in inequilibrium.
• In biological system, metabolic reactions always remain on and influx and efflux of metabolites takes place constantly, hence it can be said that living state is a non-equilibrium steady state which is able to perform work.
Formation of enzyme-substrate complex (ES) is the first step in catalysed reactions. Describe the other steps till the formation of product.
Step 1:
It involves the formation of E-S substrate complex, formed when enzyme binds to substrate at active site.
Step2: Transient phase
• The structure of substrate changes, during this very high energy of activation is involved.
Step3: Formation phase
• Finally the product gets formed.
• Enzyme gets free to bind with new substrate.
• Potential energy of the system declines.
What are different classes of enzymes? Explain any two with the type of reaction they catalyse.
Following are the different classes of enzymes:
1. Oxidoreductase
2. Transferase
3. Hydrolase
4. Lysases
5. Isomerase
6. ligases
a) Oxidoreductase:
These are the enzymes which help in simultaneous oxidation and reduction of two substrates.
b) Hydrolases:
These enzymes facilitate the hydrolysis of a molecule.
Nucleic acids exhibit secondary structure. Describe through Wetson Crick Model.
• DNA is made up of two polypeptide chains, arranged in double helix.
• The backbone is of sugar phosphate while the nitrogenous bases are present on the inner side.
• These nitrogenous bases pairs to each other by H bonds. These H bond confers for the stability of helix.
What is the difference between a nucleotide and nucleoside? Give two examples of each with their structure.
• Nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acid.
• Formed of nucleoside and phosphate group.
• Whereas nucleosides are the constituent of nucleotides.
Describe various forms of lipid with a few examples.
Lipids are classified into three categories:
1. Simple lipids: these are the esters of fatty acids.
Examples- Triglycerol, fats and wax
2. Compound lipids: lipids with an additional group other than fats and alcohol.
Example: Phospholipids, glycolipids etc.
3. Derivatives: When lipid consists of hydrocarbon rings and long chains of hydrocarbon.
Example- Steroids, cholesterol and prostaglandins.