Three major themes this course

Reflecting back on the course, what are three major themes you would identify that connect the various topics discussed in this course – how are they connected to more than one topic, and how do they connect with what you knew before this course?  What knowledge have you gained with regards to these three themes you have identified?

1 Nucleic Acids
2 Thermodynamics
3 Photosynthesis

Nucleic Acids

Nucleic Acids can be related to most thing in biochemistry. They are very important and crucial for life. Nucleic Acids, RNA and DNA can be seen as storing units in the body for our hereditary information. DNA is composed of complementary bases such as A, G, C, T and RNA is composed of A, U, C, and T as complementary bases. RNA is helpful in that it helps the ribosome to translate the information in DNA into a protein. Nucleotides are made up of sugar-phosphate backbones, which they share, and their bases. There are only twenty amino acids that make up the sequences in our body, which can be very surprising. Nucleotide polymers join together to the monomer units by using oxygen on the phosophate, and a hydroxyl group on the sugar. Its really interesting to learn so much about nucleic acids and their role in replication, yet these simple nucleic acids are so essential and important to the body to produce every day functions.
Thermodynamics
This deals with the realtionship and converstions between heat and energy production. Almost anything that has to do with science can be connected to thermodynamics. Metabolic pathways that are occuring in the human body are using and producing energy. Energy production produces heat. For example, when going for a run your body is using and burning energy, where your muscles then give off heat. In past science classes the laws of thermodynamics which were  are laws in which govern the conversion of energy from one form of energy to another, the direction in which heat will flow, and the availability of energy to do work, for example the entropy of a closed system increases with time. Biological thermodynamics is the energy production in and between living organisms, structures and cells and the chemical reactions that allow these processes to take place. For example, the process of translation and transcription of genes require energy but is necessary for specific phenotypic traits and their functions to be expressed. Also the third law of thermodynamics was used alot in this biochemistry course, using Gibbs Free Energy, G= H-TS. Where H is enthalpy, T is temperature and S is entropy. Biological thermodynamics can be related to almost every chapter we have gone over in Microbiology and in any other science class taken in the past because there is always a necessity and production of heat, power and energy when talking about living things.

Photosynthesis
Only occurs in plant cells, in the plant leaves specifically. This is a way that plants obtain energy, by sunlight. Though, interestingly enough, very few algae can utilize sunlight for energy. Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy for the cell to utilize it and/or store it in the bonds of sugar. Plants need not only sunlight but CO2 and H2O, to make sugar. From biochemistry I not only understand photosynthesis better but I understand the differences between plant cells, animal cells and bacterial cells. This process takes place in the chloroplasts of the plant cells, using chlorophyll, which is the green pigment that is involved in photosynthesis. Being able to physically see the differences in their structures and better understand their functions helps to give a better understanding of why plants need photosynthesis to occur. For example, if you have to distinguish a picture of an animal cell from a plant cell, being able to recognize the chloroplasts, like in class, helps to justify that is is a plant cell because animal cells do not have chloroplasts.

Lipid Metabolism

How would you explain the connection between glucose entering the body and energy created by the body to a friend, using your new biochemistry knowledge?

Overall, there are a set of specific chemical reactions that take place in the human body to sustain life, for example, the pathway of glycolysis. Glycolysis, in anaerobic conditions, produces lactic acid as its final product, which can cause plaque and bacteria build up in the mouth of humans etc. The body can tell what it will use for nutritious purposes and what is toxic to the body. There are many crucial steps in chemical reactions that take place in the body. Enzymes can be considered the main component of most metabolic pathways. Enzymes allow humans/organisms to catalyze reactions efficiently that require energy and would not occur by themselves, for example, by spontaneous reactions or by coupling reactions, which release energy.

For example, Ingested fat is taken in through the mouth, to the stomach, and into the small intestine, where it is broken down by bile. Long chain fatty acids are packed together in the small intestine and are taken up by the mucosal cells in the small intestine to be used for the synthesis of chylomicrons (composed of cholesterol, phospholipids, triacyglygerols, and apoproteins). Chylomicrons can then enter into the blood and be dispersed throughout the body for "fuel". This fuel helps the body’s cells to function properly and grow efficiently. This process of lipid metabolism and enzyme regulation of metabolic pathways also allows humans to be able to reproduce, respond to changes in the cells environment and/or receive signals from other cells in the body.