Final Exam CH 130

June 1996

There are 18 questions and 4 pages to this exam. Each is worth 5 points, except numbers 1 and 2 which are worth 10 points each.

1. Define precisely and provide an example for 5 of the following.

Saturated hydrocarbon

Polymer

Vitamin

Complementary base pair

Catabolism

Spontaneous process

2. Describe how information contained in DNA is used to guide the synthesis of a specific protein.

3. Acetaldehyde (ethanal) has been in the news recently. Write its structure. What is the nature of the controversy involving acetaldehyde?

4. Describe the metabolism of the body, referring specifically to the three types of food, the citric acid cycle, and the role of ATP.

5. What is the difference between conformers of cyclohexane and isomers of cyclohexane? Draw two conformers and two isomers of cyclohexane.

6. What is required for a carbon to be chiral? Illustrate your point by drawing the amino acid, isoleucine (G = -CH(CH₃)CH₂CH₃ and circling any chiral carbon(s).

7. The drugs morphine and heroin are shown below. Account for the fact that, once ingested, heroin acts quite similarly to morphine.

8. Define both gene and genetic code, and make it clear what the difference is between them, if any.

9. What type of isomers (structural, geometrical, or optical) are represented by GlyAla and AlaGly. Explain your point briefly. (You can use other than Gly and Ala if you wish.)

10. What is required for an alkene to have cis and trans isomers. Illustrate your point by drawing the structure for trans-3-heptene.

11. During the vitamin C lab, you titrated a solution of known vitamin C concentration several times before titrating the unknown solution. Why was this necessary?

12. It is said that a mutation in RNA is less serious than a mutation in DNA. Why is this so?

13. Describe three fundamentally different types polymers that we have discussed.

14. Name two families of compounds that are known for their foul smell.

15. Predict the most likely product of the reaction

16. There are more than 50,000 different enzymes in the human body. What do enzymes do? Why are there so many? How can they be rendered ineffective?

17. Drugs are often converted to their salt forms before they are given to patients. Why is this done? How might the drug morphine (question #7 ) be made into a salt?

18. Discuss the accuracy of the statement, "Plants are different from animals in two ways: animals have DNA while plants do not, and animals contain amino acids whereas plants are carbohydrates."