Biochemistry I (Animal and Human)

Your knowledge of biochemistry will help you build a solid foundation for future studies in the field of animal or human health sciences.

With Biochemistry I, jumpstart your career in the health sciences!

You will master the foundations of chemistry in this course, including:

• atomic structure
• the periodic table
• molecules
• nomenclature
• organic chemistry

With a solid foundation in the fundamentals, you’ll investigate typical organic substances like lipids, carbohydrates, and more. Animal-specific teachings cover:

• introduction to biochemistry
• lipids
• proteins
• enzymes
• nucleic acids
• thermo regulation
• carbohydrate metabolism
• absorption
• acidity
• alkalinity
• chemical analysis
• industry applications.

This course has no prerequisites, but secondary school level chemistry may be helpful.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction To Biochemistry
   • The basics; atoms, chemical bonds, molecules
   • The Periodic Table
   • Parts of a Molecule
   • Common chemical groups
   • Using these groups
   • Arrangement of atoms in a molecule
   • Chemical Nomenclature
   • Hydrocarbons
   • Aromaticity
   • Organisms and Organic Compounds
   • Biochemical Processes in the cell
2. Lipids and Proteins
   • Carbohydrates; types
   • Hydrolysis
   • Carbohydrate Function
   • Lipids
   • Fatty Acids
   • Triglycerides
   • Phospholipids
   • Terminology
   • Commercially useful fats and lipids
   • Proteins
   • Functional Categorisation of Proteins
   • Proteins in the human diet
3. Enzymes and Hormones
   • Classification of hormones
   • Endocrine Glands
   • Enzyme activation
   • Enzyme deactivation
   • Digestion
   • Digestive Enzymes
   • Digestive Hormones
   • Enzyme PBL Project
4. Nucleic Acids
   • Scope
   • Nucleotide Structure
   • RNA
   • DNA
   • ATP
   • ADP
5. Thermo-regulation
   • Raising temperature
   • Lowering Temperature
   • Effect of Temperature on Enzymes
   • Sweat Glands
   • Energy Production
   • Individual BMR
   • Fever
6. Carbohydrate Metabolism
   • Glycogenesis
   • Glycogenolysis
   • Gluconeogenesis
   • Hyperglycaemia
   • Hypoglycaemia
   • Carbohydrate Oxidation
   • Glycolysis Citric Acid Cycle
   • Anaerobic Respiration
   • Carbohydrate Storage
   • Absorption of Carbohydrates
   • Carbohydrates in Mammals
   • Comparing Energy Pathways
   • The Urea Cycle
7. Absorption
   • Digestion
   • Digestive Enzymes
   • Chemical Digestion
   • Absorption
   • Peristalsis
   • Gastric, Pancreatic and Intestinal Juices
8. Acidity and Alkalinity
   • pH
   • Measuring pH
   • Buffers
   • Animal Acid Base Balance
   • Acidosis and Alkalosis
   • Mammalian Buffer Systems
   • Role of Renal System in Acid Base Balance
9. Chemical Analysis
   • Biochemical Testing
   • Concentration testing
   • Moles and Molarity
   • Chromatography
   • Spectrophotometry
   • Analysis of Biomolecules
   • DNA Composition
   • RNA Composition
   • Protein Composition
   • Titration
10. Biochemical Applications
    • Environmental and Agricultural Testing
    • Medical Science
    • Poisons/Toxins
    • Cell Structure

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Describe the common chemical properties that are crucial to both animal and human biology.
• Describe the features of the main biochemical groupings, such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.
• Describe the properties of substances, such as enzymes and hormones, that regulate biological processes in both humans and animals.
• Describe how nucleic acids affect both animal and human biology.
• Describe how animals and humans regulate their body temperatures.
• Describe how animal and human metabolism of carbohydrates works.
• Indicate the traits of acidity and alkalinity in regard to animals and people.
• Learn basic chemical analysis techniques that are applicable to animal testing.
• Determine the functions and uses of biochemical procedures and outcomes.

How You Plan to Act

• Describe the chemical formulas of 10 chemicals listed below that are frequently found in both humans and animals.
• Determine the percentages of the elements in two given chemical compounds.
• Distinguish the traits of the main classes of biochemicals, such as:
  • carbohydrates
  • proteins
  • amino acids
  • lipids
  • nucleic acids
• Differentiate between the several monosaccharides.
• Explain the differences between the biochemistry of plants, animals, and humans using three specific biochemical processes and polysaccharides.
• Know the difference between an oil and a fat.
• Describe the properties of a particular protein formula.
• Contrast two globular proteins with two fibrous proteins.
• Describe the roles that carbohydrates play in animals and people.
• Describe two business uses for lipids in the industry the student has selected.
• Describe two industrial uses for proteins in the learner’s industry.
• Provide two examples of practical uses for carbs in the learner’s sector.
• Differentiate between a hormone and an enzyme
• Describe the action of a certain enzyme in an animal or person.
• Describe how a certain hormone affects an animal or human.
• Describe how hormones are relevant to the learner’s chosen industry sector.
• Describe how enzymes are relevant to the learner’s selected industry sector.
• Define any necessary terms, such as:
  • nitrogenous base
  • double helix model
  • nucleotides
  • pentose sugars
• Explain the importance of RNA in animals/humans, including:
  • location in cells
  • composition/structure
  • functions
• Explain the importance of DNA in animals/humans, including:
  • location in cells
  • composition/structure
  • functions
• What are RNA’s and DNA’s biological and chemical distinctions?
  
• Describe how ATP works to provide energy for different cellular processes.
  
• Define any necessary terms, such as:
  • heat
  • metabolic rate
  • basal state
  • fever
  • heat stroke
  • hypothermia
• Describe the ways through which animals and humans produce body heat.
  
• What homeostatic mechanisms control body temperature?
  
• What are the causes of body heat loss in humans and animals?
  
• Define any necessary terms, such as:
  • glycogenesis
  • lipogenesis
  • aerobic & anaerobic cellular respiration
  • kinases
  • carbohydrate loading
  • glucose anabolism
• Name the primary biochemical mechanisms that affect animal and human glucose metabolism.
• Describe glycolysis and the series of chemical reactions that take place.
• Describe the Krebs cycle and the series of chemical reactions that are involved.
• Describe the electron transport chain and the associated series of chemical reactions.
• Provide an example of how animal and human glucose metabolism differs.
  • Define relevant terminology, including:
  • absorptive state
  • post absorptive state
  • insulin
  • cortisol
  • epinephrine
• Explain the processes occurring during the absorptive (fed) state, including:
  • biochemical reactions
  • hormonal regulation
  • sites of activity
• Explain the processes occurring during the post absorptive (fasting) state, including:
  • biochemical reactions
  • hormonal regulation
  • sites of activity
• Define relevant terminology, including: *acid *alkaline *neutral *pH scale
• Describe three chemical buffering effects including:
  • bicarbonate buffering system
  • phosphate buffering system
  • protein buffering system
• Describe how pH affects the regulation of respiration.
  
• Why is it important to control the pH of human blood, and how can you do that?
  
• Determine the elements that affect an individual case study’s alkalinity and acidity levels.
  
• Define any necessary terms, such as:
  • calibration
  • electroconductivity
  • chromatography
  • colorimeter
  • indicators
• Compare a chemical test kits (eg. indicator strips) with chemical meters (eg. haemoglobin meter), in terms of the following:
  • accuracy
  • ease of use
  • portability
  • maintenance
  • calibration
  • costs
• Explain the practical applications of various analytical techniques in industry, including:
  • chromatography (TLC, GC)
  • colorimetry
  • atomic absorption
• Determine the value of analytical techniques used in the learners industry sector, including:
  • efficiency
  • accuracy
  • ease of use
• distinguish between chemical tolerance and toxicity
• Describe the effects of the LD50 properties of five different chemicals.
• Describe the effects of five different chemical compounds’ half-life properties.
• Name 10 dangerous plants or animals that are common in your area and list their active poisons.
• Describe how two naturally occurring poisons affect the body in humans.
• Describe the purpose and application of two different plants as medications for either people or animals.
• Identify three uses for animal tissue culture.

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DISCOVER HOW ENZYMES ACT IN ANIMALS AND HUMANS

The comments that follow are “generalised.” They offer an overview of the different kinds of chemical reactions at play. Nonetheless, these remarks shouldn’t be interpreted as referring only to certain kinds of animals (or human).

Enzymes are chemical compounds that transform other chemicals through the fermentation process. Both the brewing of beer and the decomposition of dead materials involve the process of fermentation. Chemicals called enzymes, which resemble proteins in their chemical makeup, have three main characteristics.

• They are capable of causing chemical change in other substances without changing themselves in the process.
• They are also capable of causing such changes within the body under mildly hot and mildly acidic or alkaline environments.
• Such alterations would necessitate extremely hot circumstances and the use of potent acids or alkalis in a laboratory, but it only takes a tiny quantity of an enzyme to produce significant changes.

Enzymes are consequently extremely potent molecules and are unique to particular jobs. One specific enzyme can only perform one function. While some enzymes only work on protein, others can only break down a certain subset of carbs.

The salivary glands’ production of the enzyme ptyalin, which is present in saliva, initiates chemical or enzyme action in the mouth. This enzyme transforms the starch in meals into less complex molecules, including the sugar maltose.

After being broken down chemically in the mouth, combined with saliva, and swallowed as a bolus, the food moves into the stomach where it joins the other food that has previously been there. Two enzymes, pepsin and rennin, as well as the chemical hydrochloric acid, with the chemical formula HCl, are present in the stomach. The glands in the stomach wall create HCl, a powerful mineral acid. The stomach’s contents become extremely acidic as a result.

The pH (the measure of acidity or alkalinity) of gastric juice ranges between 1 and 2, which is extremely acidic when the enzymes and hydrochloric acid are combined. The purpose of the stomach’s acid is to further break down the food and stop the partially and incompletely digested food from decaying (or putrefying).

Here, the pepsin enzyme breaks down the food’s proteins into more straightforward molecules.

By the time all of these processes are complete, the food is no longer recognisable as food and has transformed into chyme, a semi-fluid. Now, the chyme moves slowly and in spurts from the stomach to the small intestine through the sphincter. It’s crucial to keep in mind that food is not absorbed in the stomach. Only alcohol and a few medicines can be considered food because they are absorbed through the stomach’s wall.

The meal that was initially consumed has gone through the following steps at this point:

• It has been chewed up, ground into small particles, combined with saliva and gastric juice, and transformed into chyme.
• Some starch has been broken down into sugar in the mouth by the enzymes ptyalin and amylase.
• Some protein has been broken down in the stomach by the enzyme pepsin.
• The pH has been lowered in the stomach, and further dissolving has occurred due to the action of hydrochloric acid.

The stomach functions as a reservoir or container that delays the passage of food for a while so that the gastric juice can gather it and process it. The muscular contractions of the gut’s wall drive the chyme forward constantly once it has entered the small intestine. Peristalsis, as in the movement of the food bolus down the oesophagus, is the name of this activity.

The following juices that are introduced to the chyme as it travels the length of the gut act on it in the small intestine:

• Intestinal juice or succus entericus as it is called
• Pancreatic juice from the pancreas
• Bile stored in the gall bladder (in the liver).

 

The most active digestion takes place in the small intestine as at this stage the carbohydrates and proteins have only been partly digested and the fats have hardly been affected at all.

 

 

Succus entericus is produced by glands in the lining of the intestine and it is made up of enzymes such as:

• maltase;
• sucrase;
• lactase.

These enzymes break down complex sugars into the simple sugar glucose. Another enzyme, peptidase, continues with the breakdown of proteins.

 

Amylase, an enzyme found in pancreatic juice, converts carbohydrates to glucose. Moreover, it has three enzymes that degrade proteins (chymotrypsin, peptidase, and trypsin), as well as an enzyme called lipase that acts on lipids or fats. Moreover, the pancreas creates the regulatory hormones glucagon and insulin, which regulate blood glucose levels.

 

The liver’s bile reacts with the chyme’s fats, dissolving them into tiny droplets that mix with the liquid chyme. Oil and water typically do not mix, but if the oil is dispersed into tiny droplets and vigorously agitated with the water, they can create an emulsion.

The lipase enzyme subsequently breaks down the little fat droplets into fatty acids and a substance called glycogen. As we talk about the ruminant’s digestion, we’ll talk about these. Bile also has the ability to lessen the acidity of chyme that has come from the stomach. Bile is responsible for the alkaline chyme in the small intestine.

The chyme exits the small intestine and enters the colon, which along with the caecum makes up the large intestine. At this point, the original food has totally been broken down as follows:

• carbohydrates to simple sugar glucose
• proteins to amino acids
• fats to glycerol and fatty acids.