Carbon and Biological Molecules

• The main chemical elements include carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorous.
• Carbon is present in all living things
• Carbon is the primary component of macromolecules such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and carbohydrates

Carbon and the Environment

• Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust
• Carbon is the 4th most abundant element in the universe by mass
• Carbon cycles physically through the Earth's biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere
• Processes in the carbon cycle include photosynthesis, decomposition, respiration and carbonification

Biological Molecules

• Macromolecules containing carbon are very large polymer molecules used in reference to large biological polymers (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids)
• Polymers are large molecules with covalently linked chains of smaller molecules called monomers
• Amino acids contain at least one amino group (-NH2) and one carboxyl group (-COOH)
• 20 different amino acids are the building blocks of all proteins in the human body
• A peptide bond is a C-N bond joining two identical or different amino acids in a peptide
• Peptides are building blocks of proteins
• Proteins are the building blocks from which living organisms are constructed
• They include almost all enzymes, which catalyze organic chemical reactions, and their basic structural units are amino acids
• The amino acid sequence of a protein determines its shape and function
• Nucleic Acids are biopolymers composed of monomers called nucleotides
• DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) are the major types of nucleic acids
• Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA
• Nucleotides consist of a N-containing base, a sugar, and a phosphate group linked together
• DNA carries the genetic information
• RNA is responsible for producing proteins
• The DNA molecule exists as two chains wrapped around each other in a double helix stabilized by intermolecular forces
• A right-handed double helix is the most stable DNA structure
• DNA nucleotides consist of the sugar deoxyribose, a phosphate group, and one of four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T)
• RNA usually exists as a polynucleotide single-strand, but some special RNA viruses are double-stranded
• RNA nucleotides consist of the sugar ribose, a phosphate group, and one of four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and uracil (U).

Milestones in Molecular Informatics

• Oswald Avery and his colleagues reported in 1944 that the transforming substance, the genetic material of the cell, was DNA
• James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick used X-ray diffraction in 1953 to demonstrate that the right-handed double helix is the most stable DNA structure
• In 1985, Alec Jeffreys suggested that minisatellite DNA sequences provide a means of identification, much like fingerprints
• The first U.S. case using DNA fingerprints to convict a person of a crime was tried in 1987
• The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003