Polymers and Monomers

• Polymer = long molecule consisting of many similar building blocks
• Monomers = repeating units that serve as building blocks
• Three of the four classes of life’s organic molecules are polymers
  • Carbohydrates - Monosaccharide and Polysaccharide
  • Proteins - Amino Acids and Polypeptide
  • Nucleic acids - Nucleotide and Nucleic Acid

Synthesis and Breakdown of Polyments

• Enzymes = specialized macromolecules (proteins) that speed up chemical reactions (i.e. those that make/break polymers)
• Dehydration reaction = 2 monomers bond together through the loss of a water molecule
• Polymers are broken into monomers = hydrolysis (essentially the reverse of the dehydration reaction)