Carbon and the Molecular Diversity of Life

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Carbon and the Molecular Diversity of Life

• Chapter 4
• Campbell and Reece 6th Edition

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Organic Chemistry

• The study of organic compounds is called organic
  chemistry.
• A cell is composed primarily of
• 70-95 H2O
• C,N,O,S,P
• A Swedish chemist in the 19th century Jons Jakob
  Brazelius was the first to notice that organic
  compounds are found in living organisms and
  inorganic substances are found in the non-living.
• Scientists believed that is was impossible to
  make complex organic compounds from inorganic
  compounds.
• Vitalism the idea that the life force was
  governed by something other that chemical and
  physical laws.
• In 1828 a German chemist Fredrich Wohler
  attempted to make an inorganic salt called
  ammonium cyanate from inorganic substances but
  instead made urea which is present in animal
  urine.
• Other scientists were not convinced because he
  extracted the cyanate from living tissue.
• Eventually Hermann Kolbe, a student of Wohlers
  was able to make acetic acid from strictly
  inorganic substances.

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Stanley Miller

• In 1953 Miller used a laboratory simulation to
  create primitive Earth.
• Produced organic molecules in the laboratory
  using gases present in the primordial atmosphere
  like
• NH3, H2O, H2 and CH4 and electricity which
  simulated lightning.

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CARBON

• Carbon is very versatile because has a 4 valence
  electrons.
• It has a tendency to created complex branched
  molecules.
• Contributes to the diversity of organic
  compounds.
• Hydrocarbons are
• composed of hydrogen and carbon.
• excellent fuels because the covalent bond between
  the carbon and hydrogen contain a lot of energy.
• composed of partially decomposed organisms.
• Hydrophobic because they are long chains of
  carbon bound to hydrogen atoms.

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Carbon to form many different chemical compounds
 

• 1). Length of the carbon skeleton may differ (
  C-C, C-C-C, C-C-C-C-C, etc.).   2). Branching
  of the carbon skeleton
• ( C-C-C-C, C-C-C-C-C ) C

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• 3). The number of double bonds may differ
• ( CC-C-C, CCC-C ).
• 4). The molecular structure may be in ring
  form. Isomer - A chemical compound with the
  same molecular formula but a different structural
  formula.  

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Parts of Hydrocarbons are Found in Living
Organisms
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Organic Valences
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Types of Isomers

• Structural
• Same molecular formula but different shape.
• Geometric
• Involves a double bond in which the groups of
  atoms that are covalently bound to the carbon
  backbone have a different spatial arrangement.
• Rhodopsin is a light induced isomer involved in
  vision.
• Enantiomers
• Mirror images of each other
• Thalidimide, L-Dopa and D-Dopa

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Isomers
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Functional Groups

• Molecular groups attached to the carbon skeleton
  affect the function of the molecule.
• Hydroxyl
• Carbonyl
• Carboxyl
• Amino
• Sulfhydryl (Thiol)
• Phosphate

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Estrogen Versus Testosterone a Subtle Difference
in Function Groups
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Estrogen and Testosterone
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