Carbon and Macromolecules

• The primary chemical elements present in living organisms include carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorous
• Carbon ranks as the 15th most abundant element in Earth's crust
• Carbon stands as the 4th most abundant element in the universe by mass, following hydrogen, helium, and oxygen
• Carbon is a component in every living thing
• Carbon serves as the main component of macromolecules, including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates
• These macromolecules play an important role for life
• The carbon cycle encompasses the physical cycling of carbon through Earth's biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere
• Processes involved in the carbon cycle consist of photosynthesis, decomposition, respiration, and carbonification
• A macromolecule is a very large polymer molecule containing carbon, especially used in reference to large biological polymers such as nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids
• A polymer is a large molecule made of a covalently linked chain of smaller molecules called monomers, which represent a repeat unit of a polymer
• An amino acid is a compound with at least one amino group (-NH2) and one carboxyl group (-COOH)
• There are twenty different amino acids, and they serve as the building blocks for all proteins in the human body
• A peptide bond is a C-N bond that joins two identical or different amino acids in a peptide
• Proteins are built from peptides
• Proteins form the building blocks for the structures of living organisms and include almost all enzymes, catalyzing organic chemical reactions
• The basic structural units of proteins are amino acids
• The amino acid sequence of a protein dictates its shape, which in turn determines its function
• Nucleic acids are biopolymers constructed from monomers referred to as nucleotides
• The main forms of nucleic acids include deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA)
• Nucleotides serve as the building blocks of DNA and RNA
• Each nucleotide is made up of an N-containing base, a sugar, and a phosphate group connected together
• Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) carries genetic information
• Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is responsible for producing proteins
• DNA exists as two chains intertwined in a right-handed double helix, stabilized by intermolecular forces
• DNA is a nucleic acid in which the nucleotides include the sugar deoxyribose, a phosphate group, and one of the four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T)
• RNA primarily exists as a single-strand polynucleotide, but certain RNA viruses are exceptions as they are double-stranded
• RNA is a nucleic acid in which the nucleotides consist of the sugar ribose, a phosphate group, and one of the 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 DNA was the transforming genetic material of the cell
• James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick used X-ray diffraction in 1953 to prove the right-handed double helix as the most stable DNA structure
• Alec Jeffreys proposed in 1985 that minisatellite DNA sequences could provide a means of identification, similar to fingerprints
• In 1987, the first U.S. case led to a person's conviction for a crime using DNA fingerprints
• The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003