3 major themes, how are the connected to more than one topic and what you knew before, what knowledge have you gained?

Three major themes that were covered in this course were biomolecules such as lipids and amino acids, proteins etc...,DNA transcription and translation, and metabolic cycles, such as Glycolysis. Each of these processes, in reality, support and rely on each other.

Biomolecules are any organic molecules, including large polymeric molecules, such as proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids as well as small molecules, such as primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, and natural products. Biomolecules consist of primaily Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen and Oxygen. These biomolecules are all linked to DNA formation as well as metabolic pathways. I had a pretty decent understanding of this before this course, and actually learning more about it was helpful to me.

For DNA replication, translation is when the coded strand is being used for the new DNA strand to be formed. Each 3 bases form a codon that then makes up a certain protein. Throughout this course, this process was looked at thoroughly to the level of the subunit(s) on the strand bringing together anti - codon tRNA that also had the given amino acid attached. tRNA is what aids in the actual protein formation as it transfers specific amino acids to a growing peptide chain. This covalent linkage is catalyzed by an enzyme called aminoacyl tRNA synthetase. I have always been interested in how DNA works and how our cells replicate DNA. Learning more about this in Biochemistry helped me greatly to fully understand this process.

Each of these biomolecules are also utilized in the different metabolic processes that were covered in this course, such as Glycolysis, Electron Transport Chain, Oxidative Phosphorylation, and Lipid Metabolism. This is the area I knew most about due to the fact that I have gone over Glycolysis in great detail in my General Microbiology course, although this focused on prokaryotes, it was good to get a sense of how this process works in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

How Would You Explain The Connection Between Glucose Entering The Body and Energy Created By The Body To A Friend?

Glycolysis was the first biochemical pathway elucidated. In glycolysis, one molecule of glucose, which is a six - carbon compound, is converted to frucotse - 1,6 - bisphosphate. This compound eventually gives rise to two molecules of pyruvate, which is a three - carbon compound. The glycolytic pathway involves many steps that include the reactions in which metabolites of glucose are oxidized. Each reaction in glycolysis is catalyzed by an enzyme specific for that reaction. In each of two other reactions, one molecule of ATP is hydrolyzed for each molecule of glucose metabolized; the energy released in the hydrolysis of these two ATP molecules makes coupled endergonic reactions possible. In each of two other reactions, two molecules of ATP are produced by phosphorylation of ADP for each molecule of glucose. At the end of glycolysis, there is a total of 32 ATP produced for the body to use as energy. This process is ongoing and is essential for life.

What Knowledge Have You Connected With Past Knowledge

Since the midterm, we have learned about Thermodynamics, Carbohydrates, Glycolysis/ Storage Mechanisms, Citric Acid Cycle, Electron Transport Chain, Oxidative Phosphorylation and Lipid Metabolism. I have done a little bit of Thermodynamics in General Chemistry, so it was good to get a refresher on the theories and to see the math, even though we didn't use it in this course. The process of Glycolysis was a topic that we went over in GREAT detail in my General Microbiology course; we had to know every single part of the pathway, including all of the compounds, what was being removed/added, etc... Although, that was based all on bacterial Glycolysis, it was good to go over the eukaryotic aspect and see where the differences are with this. I felt as if this gave me a good view of how everything really works with energy and storage in the body/mitochondria and how exactly we get our energy (ATP or GTP). I felt as if the second half of this semester was very interesting and I learned some information that I did not know a lot about, such as the Lipid Metabolism and more about Oxidative Phosphorylation.