How are monomers, polymers and macromolecules related?
1 Answer
Monomers are smaller molecules, and when bonded together, make up polymers .
-Fatty acids are the monomers for lipids , for example, and regardless of how they are bonded (as a saturated or unsaturated fat, for example), they will form lipids.
-Nucleotides form nucleic acids (eg. DNA)
-Monosaccharides form carbohydrates (eg. maltose, a disaccharide, is made up of two molecules of glucose, a monosaccharide).
Below is a picture of the two glucose molecules, which are monomers, bonded together into maltose, a more complex carbohydrate.
-Amino acids make up proteins (so even though there are only 22 natural amino acids, there are countless types of protein that are formed with them)
The macromolecules of life are lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and proteins.
