Video Transcript
Proteins are complex macromolecules
formed from polypeptide chains. What monomers join to form
polypeptides? Amino acids, lipids, simple sugars,
glycerol, fatty acids.
This question is asking us to
identify the monomer that makes up proteins. To answer this question, let’s
start by defining the term monomer. Monomers are small, simple
molecular subunits. When monomers are joined together
through the process of polymerization, they form larger structures called
polymers. Using information from the
question, we know that polypeptide chains are the polymers that are formed by the
monomer we’re looking to identify.
While there are many types of
monomers found in living organisms like simple sugars or nucleotides, the only
monomer that forms polypeptide chains are amino acids. When amino acids are joined
together, they form peptide bonds. The more amino acids that are
joined, the more peptide bonds are formed and the longer the polypeptide chain. These polypeptide chains are then
joined to be coiled or folded into their final form as a protein.
With this information, we can now
answer the question. The monomers that join to form
polypeptides are amino acids.
