Fatty Acids, Glycerol, and Lipids | Biochemistry
Summary
TLDRDr. Mike's video script delves into the chemistry of fats, or lipids, highlighting their composition of carbon, hydrogen, and a small amount of oxygen. He explains the structure of fatty acids, distinguishing between saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated types based on the presence and arrangement of hydrogen atoms and double bonds. The script further clarifies how these fatty acids combine with glycerol to form triglycerides, which the body stores as fat for energy, cushioning, or support. The video also touches on the physical properties of fats, such as being solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their saturation levels.
Takeaways
- 🧬 Fats, or lipids, are macromolecules composed mainly of carbon, hydrogen, and a small amount of oxygen, unlike carbohydrates where carbon and oxygen are usually in equal amounts.
- 🔍 Fatty acids are the monomer units of fats, consisting of hydrocarbon chains with varying lengths and types of bonds.
- 🔗 Saturated fatty acids have single bonds between all carbon atoms, are linear, and are typically solid at room temperature, like most animal fats.
- 🌀 Monounsaturated fatty acids have one double bond, causing a kink in the chain, making them liquid at room temperature, like plant oils such as olive oil.
- 🌐 Polyunsaturated fatty acids have multiple double bonds, leading to more kinks and also being liquid at room temperature.
- 💧 The body cannot store long fatty acid chains directly, so it combines three fatty acids with a glycerol molecule through a dehydration process to form triglycerides.
- 🔗 Triglycerides are the form in which the body stores fats, either for energy or for structural purposes like cushioning and support.
- 🍫 Cocoa butter is an example of a fat with a mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which affects its physical properties.
- 🌡 The physical state (solid or liquid) of fats at room temperature is influenced by the saturation level of the fatty acids they contain.
- 🔑 Fatty acids can vary in their attachment to glycerol, leading to different types of fats with distinct properties and functions in the body.
Q & A
What are fats also known as in the context of macromolecules?
-Fats are also known as lipids when discussing macromolecules.
What are the basic elements that make up fats?
-Fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
How do the molecular structures of fats differ from carbohydrates?
-While both fats and carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, fats predominantly consist of carbon and hydrogen with a very small amount of oxygen, whereas carbohydrates typically have a balance between carbon and oxygen atoms.
What is the basic monomer structure of fats called?
-The basic monomer structure of fats is called a fatty acid.
What are the hydrocarbon chains in fatty acids?
-Hydrocarbon chains in fatty acids are the carbon chains with hydrogen atoms attached to them.
What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?
-Saturated fatty acids have all possible bonds filled with hydrogen atoms, making them straight and solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double bonds, causing kinks in the chain and making them liquid at room temperature.
Why are saturated fatty acids typically solid at room temperature?
-Saturated fatty acids are typically solid at room temperature because their linear structure allows them to stack closely together.
What is the role of the carboxyl functional group in fatty acids?
-The carboxyl functional group in fatty acids contains the oxygen and is attached to the carbon chain, characterizing the fatty acid as an acid.
How does the presence of double bonds affect the physical state of fatty acids?
-The presence of double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids introduces kinks in the hydrocarbon chain, preventing tight packing and resulting in a liquid state at room temperature.
What is the process by which the body stores fatty acids?
-The body stores fatty acids by connecting three fatty acids to a molecule of glycerol through a dehydration process, forming triglycerides.
What are triglycerides and how are they related to body fat storage?
-Triglycerides are compounds formed by three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. They are stored as fat deposits in the body for energy use, cushioning, support, or anchoring organs in place.
Why can't the body store fatty acids in their long-chain form?
-The body cannot store fatty acids in their long-chain form because these chains are too long to be efficiently stored or utilized directly.
Outlines
🧬 Understanding Fats and Fatty Acids
Dr. Mike introduces fats, also known as lipids, as a type of macromolecule composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Unlike carbohydrates, fats have a higher proportion of carbon and hydrogen with less oxygen. He explains the structure of fatty acids, which are the monomers of fats, highlighting their hydrocarbon chains and the presence of a carboxyl group. Three types of fatty acids are discussed: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have all possible bonds filled with hydrogen, allowing them to stack neatly and be solid at room temperature, typical of animal fats. Monounsaturated fatty acids have a single double bond causing a kink, preventing tight stacking and thus being liquid at room temperature, like in peanut and olive oils. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have multiple double bonds, further disrupting stacking and maintaining a liquid state, even at room temperature. The body cannot store long fatty acid chains directly, so it combines three fatty acids with glycerol through a dehydration process to form triglycerides, which are stored as fat for energy or other functions.
🔗 The Role of Triglycerides in Fat Storage
This paragraph further elaborates on triglycerides, which are formed by the combination of three fatty acids with glycerol. The types of fatty acids that can be attached to glycerol vary, leading to fats that can be solid or liquid at room temperature. An example given is cocoa butter, which contains a mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The paragraph concludes by summarizing the discussion on triglycerides, fats, fatty acids, and their role as macromolecules in the body.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fats
💡Macromolecule
💡Fatty Acids
💡Saturated Fatty Acids
💡Monounsaturated Fatty Acids
💡Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
💡Triglycerides
💡Glycerol
💡Dehydration Process
💡Energy Storage
💡Cocoa Butter
Highlights
Fats, also known as lipids, are a type of macromolecule made up of carbons, hydrogens, and oxygens.
Carbohydrates also consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but fats have fewer oxygen molecules.
Fatty acids, the monomers of fats, are hydrocarbon chains predominantly made of carbons and hydrogens.
The difference between fatty acids lies in the length of the carbon chain and the types of bonds between the carbons.
Fatty acids have a carboxyl group attached, which contains oxygen.
Saturated fatty acids, like palmitic acid, have all possible carbon bonds filled with hydrogen atoms and are linear in structure.
Saturated fatty acids can stack closely together, making them solid at room temperature, such as in animal fats.
Monounsaturated fatty acids, such as oleic acid, have a double bond between two carbons, creating a kink in the structure.
Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature due to their inability to stack closely, as seen in plant oils like olive oil.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids, like linoleic acid, contain multiple double bonds, adding more kinks and making them liquid at room temperature.
The body stores fatty acids as triglycerides, which are composed of three fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule.
The dehydration process helps attach fatty acids to glycerol by removing water, forming triglycerides.
Triglycerides are stored for energy use, cushioning, or anchoring organs in place.
Different types of fatty acids can combine with glycerol, affecting whether the fat is solid or liquid at room temperature.
Cocoa butter contains a mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, demonstrating how diverse fatty acid combinations can affect properties.
Transcripts
[Music]
hi everyone dr. Mike here let's talk
about fats also known as lipids as a
type of macromolecule okay first thing
is that if we have a look at fats
they're made up of carbons hydrogen's
and oxygens that's it now I spoke about
carbohydrates they also made up of
carbon hydrogen and oxygen but what
you'll find with carbs is that usually
the amount of carbons are matched by the
amount of oxygens now here for fat what
you'll find is it's predominantly just
carbons and hydrogen's with a very small
amount of oxygen molecules attached now
what you can see is I've drawn up the
basic monomer structure so this is the
smallest subunit of fats that we call
fatty acids so I've drawn up three
different types of fatty acids here and
you can see that they're predominantly
carbon chains with a bunch of hydrogen's
attached to them so we call them
hydrocarbon chains now the difference
between one fatty acid and another is
simply the length of this carbon chain
and also the types of bonds between each
of these carbons I'll talk more about
that in a second you can say that each
fatty acid also has this accessory group
attached to it
this functional group which is called a
carboxyl which you can see contains the
oxygen so that's all not much oxygen at
all now what you can see is these three
different fatty acids the first one I've
drawn up is up what's called PAL midok
acid and it's what we call a saturated
fatty acid now when you've got a
saturated fatty acid what it means is
this every single carbon is attached to
a hydrogen atom that means all the
possible bonds that a carbon can make
are going to be filled up by hydrogen
atoms and you can say that all the way
across now a saturated fatty acid you
can see is linear it's straight and that
means that if you have multiple fatty
acids that are saturated and linear they
can stack nicely on top of each other
that means they are solid at room
temperature because they stack nicely
closely together it means that they are
solid and they're solid at room
temperature so this include
most of the animal fats are saturated
fats and as we move down you can see
something called a mono unsaturated
fatty acid the one I've drawn up here is
a lake acid and you can see that it's
very similar to the paramedic saturated
acid except there's one difference that
there is a double bond between two
carbons now this double bond means that
the carbon is not saturated with
hydrogen ions and because there's only
one double bond we call it a mono
unsaturated fatty acid and what this
double bond does as you can see it puts
a kink in that fatty acid and that means
that if you were to get multiple mono
unsaturated fatty acids and stack them
on top of each other they don't actually
stack nice and tight because of these
kinks present now this means that they
are liquid at room temperature and what
you'll find is these monounsaturated
fatty acids are predominately plant oils
so this includes peanut oils and olive
oils as well again liquid at room
temperature then we move down to
something called a polyunsaturated fatty
acid the one I've drawn up here is
linoleic acid linoleic acid I should say
and it's got two double bonds so
polyunsaturated means many unsaturated
carbons and you can see two double bonds
and that puts more of a kink into the
fatty acid and that means again it's
going to be liquid at room temperature
now what you'll find is that our body
cannot store fatty acids in this form
because these carbon chains are far too
long so what our body does is it takes
three fatty acids and it connects them
to a molecule could glycerol and you can
see glycerol here has three carbons it's
got eight hydrogen's it's got three
oxygens and what it does is through a
dehydration process I spoke about this
with carbohydrates removes an oxygen
removes water in a dehydration process
we remove these hydrogen's here from the
glycerol then we remove the O H groups
from three fatty acids and they click
together and you can see we've got three
fatty acids he clicked to a glycerol and
now what we have is something called
triglycerides so our body stores fatty
acids connected to a glycerol backbone
three of them as triglycerides and
triglycerides are stored as fat
deposition and so
that's there for energy use in case we
need it or it's also there for
cushioning or support or even Anchorage
holding organs into place now what
you'll find is that the types of fatty
acids we can attach to a glycerol are
variable so you can have all saturated
that makes it solid at room temperature
you can have all mono or polyunsaturated
liquid at room temperature for example
if you look at cocoa butter what it has
is it's got palmitic acid as one of the
fatty acids it's got a lake acid as one
of the fatty acids and it's got a
polyunsaturated fatty acid which we
haven't drawn up here but he connects
and clicks into place
okay so what we've spoken about here is
triglycerides and fats and fatty acids
and lipids and their use as a macro
molecule
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