Chem/Biol 471  Fall 2007

Study guide for midterm Exam #1

 

The exam will be held Tuesday evening 10/16, in SL110, from 6:00pm until 8:00pm.  Bring a calculator.  Partial credit for multi-step problems will be given ONLY if you show your work.  In some cases full credit will not be given UNLESS you show the logical progression of your work.  Some of the problems are designed to test your ability to solve biochemical problems (such as those in V&V).  In addition other problems will be designed to test your ability to use biological and chemical concepts to suggest likely explanations for biochemical phenomena (e.g. “predict the relative stabilities of these peptide structures under the following conditions...”).

 

Lecture on Monday 10/15 will be a review/Q&A session.

 

This list is not guaranteed to be comprehensive, but it is a very good idea to review the graded homework assignments and the following topics in preparation for the exam.

 

General:

Building blocks/structures of biopolymers: know general features of nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and membranes.  I won’t expect you to draw structures for nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and membranes (yet!); however, I will expect you to know and draw amino acid structures.

 

Thermodynamics:

DG = DH - TDS (know interactions that contribute to DH and DS in biochemical systems)

what is the “hydrophobic effect” and how is used to explain stability of proteins and membranes?

Be able to draw examples of: ionic bonds, H-bonds (showing donor and acceptor atoms), and van der Waals interactions

DG = DG°’ + RTlnQ

            - how is DG°’ determined from K­­­eq, or from the combination of other chemical equations and DG°’ values?

            - how are values correctly entered into the Q expression? (See handout given in class)

describe thermodynamic vs. kinetic stability

how is ATP utilized in biochemical reactions, or, how does nature drive unfavorable reactions in cells?

 

Acid-base chemistry: application of Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to buffers, amino acids, polypeptides (i.e. calculating partial charges on ionizable groups, what are pKa and pI and how does one work with them?)

 

Amino acids: know names, structures, 1 letter code, general properties (polarity, sidechain charges at pH = 7)

 

Here is a link to last year’s exam:  practice exam #1.

 

Later, I will post brief answers to the practice exam questions here:  practice exam brief answers.