Every polymer in this course is built by the same reaction and broken by its reverse. Then one flipped hydroxyl decides whether the product feeds you or holds a tree up.
Biology builds big molecules the boring way: the same reaction, over and over, with a different subunit each time. Learn it once and three of the four families come free.
Small and soluble. Monosaccharide, amino acid, nucleotide — the repeating unit that gives the polymer its name.
A covalent bond forms and a water molecule leaves. Anabolic, so it needs energy and an enzyme.
Water is added across the bond and the chain splits. This is what digestion actually is.
Tap each part. Carbon 1 is the one to watch — it decides whether this molecule ends up as starch or as wood.
Tap the ring, carbon 1, carbon 4, the CH₂OH branch, the hydroxyl groups, or the molecular formula.
Step through the reaction that assembles every polymer you will meet this year — then run it in reverse.
Three polysaccharides, one monomer, three completely different jobs. The difference is entirely in the bonds.
Amylose coils; amylopectin branches. Compact, insoluble, and hydrolysed back to glucose on demand.
The same α-glucose, branched more heavily still. More free ends means faster release.
β-glucose forces straight chains that hydrogen-bond into cables. Strength, not storage.
Tap a node to light up its connections. The pink dashed link is the one examiners keep coming back to.
Notice that α-glucose and β-glucose sit side by side: identical formula, opposite destinies.
Drag a term into a gap, or tap a term and then tap a gap. Two terms belong nowhere.
Large biological molecules are polymers assembled from repeating . Joining two of them releases a water molecule in a reaction, and adding water to split the bond again is . In carbohydrates the covalent bond formed is called a bond. Starch and glycogen are polymers of , whereas cellulose is a polymer of . Glycogen is far more than amylose, so enzymes have many more free ends to work on. In cellulose, straight chains hydrogen-bond side by side into that give plant cell walls their strength.
Single best answer. You get the reasoning as soon as you commit.