BIOMOLECULES – PRIMARY AND SECONDARY METABOLITES The most exciting aspect of chemistry deals with isolating thousands of compounds, small and big, from living organisms, determining their structure and if possible synthesising them. If one were to make a list of biomolecules, such a list would have thousands of organic compounds including amino acids, sugars, etc. …
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BIOMOLECULES – INTRODUCTION There is a wide diversity in living organisms in our biosphere. Now a question that arises in our minds is: Are all living organisms made of the same chemicals, i.e., elements and compounds? You have learnt in chemistry how elemental analysis is performed. If we perform such an analysis on a plant …
BIOMOLECULES – HOW TO ANALYSE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION? We can continue asking in the same way, what type of organic compounds are found in living organisms? How does one go about finding the answer? To get an answer, one has to perform a chemical analysis. We can take any living tissue (a vegetable or a piece …
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BIOMACROMOLECULES There is one feature common to all those compounds found in the acid soluble pool. They have molecular weights ranging from 18 to around 800 daltons (Da) approximately. The acid insoluble fraction, has only four types of organic compounds i.e., proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids. These classes of compounds with the exception of …
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION Biodiversity and Conservation (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) If an alien from a distant galaxy were to visit our planet Earth, the first thing that would amaze and baffle him would most probably be the enormous diversity of life that he would encounter. Even for humans, the rich variety of living organisms with which …
ECOSYSTEM Ecosystem – Ecosystem-Structure and Function, Productivity, Decomposition, Energy Flow, Ecological Pyramids, Ecological Succession, Nutrient Cycling and Ecosystem Services (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) An ecosystem can be visualised as a functional unit of nature, where living organisms interact among themselves and also with the surrounding physical environment. Ecosystem varies greatly in size from a small pond …
ECOLOGY – ORGANISMS AND POPULATIONS Ecology – Organisms and Populations (Organism and its Environment and Populations) (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) Diversity is not only a characteristic of living organisms but also of content in biology textbooks. Biology is presented either as botany, zoology and microbiology or as classical and modern. The latter is a euphemism for …
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATIONS Biotechnology and its Applications – Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture, Biotechnological Applications in Medicine, Transgenic Animals and Ethical Issues (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) Biotechnology is essentially deals with industrial scale production of biopharmaceuticals and biologicals using genetically modified microbes, fungi, plants and animals. The applications of biotechnology include therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically modified crops …
BIOTECHNOLOGY – Principles and Processes Biotechnology – Principles and Processes (Principles of Biotechnology, Tools of Recombinant DNA Technology and Processes of Recombinant DNA Technology (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) Ever since the days of Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, mathematician and biologist of seventeenth century, all human knowledge especially natural sciences were directed to develop technologies which …
MICROBES IN HUMAN WELFARE Microbes in Human Welfare – Microbes in Household Products, Microbes in Industrial Products, Microbes in Sewage Treatment, Microbes in Production of Biogas, Microbe as Biocontrol Agents and Microbes as Biofertilisers (NCERT 12TH BIOLOGY) Besides macroscopic plants and animals, microbes are the major components of biological systems on this earth. Do you …