Includes index.

Introduction -- About this book -- Conventions used in this book -- Icons used in this book -- What you're not to read -- Foolish assumptions -- How this book is organized -- Part 1: Setting The Stage: Basic Biochemistry Concepts -- Part 2: Meat Of Biochemistry: Proteins -- Part 3: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Nucleic Acids, And More -- Part 4: Bioenergetics And Pathways -- Part 5: Genetics: Why We Are What We Are -- Part 6: Part Of Tens -- Where to go from here -- Part 1: Setting The Stage: Basic Biochemistry Concepts -- 1: Biochemistry: what you need to know and why -- Why biochemistry? -- What is biochemistry and where does it take place? -- Types of living cells -- Prokaryotes -- Eukaryotes -- Animal cells and how they work -- Brief look at plant cells -- 2: Dive in: water chemistry -- Fundamentals of H2O -- Let's get wet! physical properties of water -- Water's most important biochemical role: the solvent -- Hydrogen ion concentration: acids and bases -- Achieving equilibrium -- Sour and bitter numbers: the pH scale -- Calculating pOH -- Strong and weak: Bronsted-Lowry theory -- Buffers and pH control -- Identifying common physiological buffers -- Calculating a buffer's pH -- 3: Fun with carbon: organic chemistry -- Role of carbon in the study of life -- It's all in the numbers: carbon bonds -- Sticky chemistry: bond strengths -- Everybody has 'em: intermolecular forces -- Water-related interactions: both the lovers and the haters -- How bond strengths affect physical properties of substances -- Defining a molecule's reactivity: functional groups -- Hydrocarbons -- Functional groups with oxygen and sulfur -- Functional groups containing nitrogen -- Functional groups containing phosphorous -- Reactions of functional groups -- pH and functional groups -- Same content, different structure: isomerism -- Cis-trans isomers -- Chiral carbons -- Part 2: Meat Of Biochemistry: Proteins -- 4: Amino acids: the building blocks of protein -- General properties of amino acids -- Amino acids are positive and negative: the zwitterion formation -- Protonated? pH and the isoelectric point -- Asymmetry: chiral amino acids -- Magic 20 amino acids -- Nonpolar (hydrophobic) amino acids -- Polar and uncharged (hydrophilic) amino acids -- Acidic amino acids -- Basic amino acids -- Lest we forget: rarer amino acids -- Rudiments of amino acid interactions -- Intermolecular forces: how an amino acid reacts with other molecules -- Altering interactions by changing an amino acid's pH -- Combining amino acids: how it works -- Peptide bond and the dipeptide -- Tripeptide: adding an amino acid to a dipeptide.

5: Protein structure and function -- Primary structure: the structure level all proteins have -- Building a protein: outlining the process -- Organizing the amino acids -- Example: the primary structure of insulin -- Secondary structure: a structure level most proteins have -- A-helix -- B-pleated sheet -- B-turns and the Q-loops -- Tertiary structure: a structure level many proteins have -- Quaternary structure: a structure level some proteins have -- Dissecting a protein for study -- Separating proteins within a cell and purifying them -- Digging into the details: uncovering a protein's amino acid sequence -- 6: Enzymes kinetics: getting there faster -- Enzyme classification: the best catalyst for the job -- Up one, down one: oxidoreductases -- You don't belong here: transferases -- Water does it again: hydrolases -- Taking it apart: lyases -- Shuffling the deck: isomerases -- Putting it together: ligases -- Enzymes as catalysts: when fast is not fast enough -- Models of catalysis: lock and key versus induced-fit -- All about kinetics -- Enzyme assays: fixed time and kinetic -- Rate determination: how fast is fast? -- Measuring enzyme behavior: the Michaelis-Menten equation -- Ideal applications -- Realistic applications -- Here we go again: Lineweaver-Burk plots -- Enzyme inhibition: slowing it down-- Competitive inhibition -- Noncompetitive inhibition -- Graphing inhibition -- Enzyme regulation -- Allosteric control -- Multiple enzyme forms -- Covalent modification -- Proteolytic activation -- Part 3: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Nucleic Acids, And More -- 7: What we crave: carbohydrates -- Properties of carbohydrates -- They contain one or more chiral carbons -- They have multiple chiral centers -- Sweet topic: monosaccharides -- Most stable monosaccharide structures: pyranose and furanose forms -- Chemical properties of monosaccharides -- Derivatives of the monosaccharides -- Most common monosaccharides -- Beginning of life: ribose and deoxyribose -- Sugars joining hands: oligosaccharides -- Keeping it simple: disaccharides -- Starch and cellulose: polysaccharides -- 8: Lipids and membranes -- Lovely lipids: an overview -- Fatty subject: triglycerides -- Properties and structures of fats -- Cleaning up: breaking down a triglyceride -- No simpletons here: complex lipids -- Phosphoglycerides -- Sphingolipids -- Sphingophospholipids -- Membranes: the bipolar and the bilayer -- Crossing the wall: membrane transport -- Pumps -- Channels -- Steroids: pumping up -- Prostaglandins, thromboxanes, and leukotrienes: mopping up.

9: Nucleic acids and the code of life -- Nucleotides: the guts of DNA and RNA -- Reservoir of genetic info: nitrogen bases -- Sweet side of life: the sugars -- Sour side of life: phosphoric acid -- Tracing the process: from nucleoside to nucleotide to nucleic acid -- First reaction: nitrogen base + 5-carbon sugar = nucleoside -- Second reaction: phosphoric acid + nucleoside = nucleotide -- Third reaction: nucleotide becomes nucleic acid -- Primer on nucleic acids -- DNA and RNA in the grand scheme of life -- Nucleic acid structure -- 10: Vitamins and nutrients -- More than one-a-day: basics of vitamins -- To B or not to B: B complex vitamins -- Vitamin B1 (thiamine) -- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) -- Vitamin B3 (niacin) -- Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) -- Biotin -- Folic acid -- Pantothenic acid -- Wonders of vitamin B12 -- Vitamin A -- Vitamin D -- Vitamin E -- Vitamin K -- Vitamin C -- 11: Be Quiet: Hormones -- Structures of some key hormones -- Proteins -- Steroids -- Amines -- Beyond and after: prohormones -- Proinsulin -- Angiotensinogen -- Fight or flight: hormone function -- Opening the letter: hormonal action -- Models of hormonal action -- Part 4: Bioenergetics And Pathways -- 12: Life and energy -- ATP: the energy pony express -- ATP and free energy -- ATP as an energy transporter -- It's relative: molecules related to ATP -- Nucleoside triphosphate family -- As easy as 1, 2, 3: AMP, ADP, and ATP -- Where it all comes from -- 13: ATP: body's monetary system -- Metabolism I: glycolysis -- Glucose: where it all starts -- Miles per gallon? Energy efficiency -- Going in reverse: gluconeogenesis -- Alcoholic fermentation: we'll drink to that -- Metabolism II: citric acid (Krebs) cycle -- Let's get started: synthesis of acetyl-CoA -- Three's a crowd: tricarboxylic acids -- Just a little gas: oxidation decarboxylation -- Production of succinate and GTP -- Oxaloacetate regeneration -- Amino acids as energy sources -- Electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation -- Electron transport system -- Script: oxidative phosphorylation -- Play: proposed mechanisms -- Box office: ATP production -- Involving the fats: B-oxidation cycle -- Not so heavenly bodies: ketone bodies -- Investing in the future: biosynthesis -- Fatty acids -- Membrane lipids -- Amino acids -- 14: Smelly biochemistry: nitrogen in biological systems -- Ring in the nitrogen: purine -- Biosyntheis of purine -- How much will it cost? -- Pyrimidine synthesis -- First step: carbamoyl phosphate -- Next step: orotate -- Last step: cytidine -- Back to the beginning: catabolism -- Nucleotide catabolism -- Amino acid catabolism -- Heme catabolism -- Process of elimination: the urea cycle -- Amino acids once again -- Metabolic disorders -- Gout -- Lesch-Nyhan syndrome -- Albinism -- Alkaptonuria -- Phenylketonuria.

Part 5: Genetics: Why We Are What We Are -- 15: Photocopying DNA -- Let's do it again: replication -- DNA polymerases -- Current model of DNA replication -- Mechanisms of DNA repair -- Mutation: the good, the bad, and the ugly -- Restriction enzymes -- Mendel rolling over: recombinant DNA -- Patterns: determining DNA sequences -- Determining the base sequence -- Butler did it: forensic applications -- Genetic diseases and other DNA testing applications -- Sickle cell anemia -- Hemochromatosis -- Cystic fibrosis -- Hemophilia -- Tay-Sachs -- 16: Transcribe this! RNA transcription -- RNA polymerase requirements -- Making RNA: the basics -- Prokaryotic cells -- Eukaryotic cells -- To heck with Da Vinci: the genetic code -- Codons -- Alpha and omega -- Models of gene regulation -- Jacob-Monod (operon) model -- Regulation of eucaryotic genes -- 17: Translation: protein synthesis -- Hopefully not lost in translation -- Why translation is necessary -- Home, home in the ribosome -- Translation team -- Team captain: rRNA -- Here's the snap: mRNA -- Carrying the ball: tRNA -- Charging up the middle: amino acid activation -- Hooking up: protein synthesis -- Activation -- Initiation -- Elongation -- Termination -- Wobble hypothesis -- Variation in eukaryotic cells -- Ribosomes -- Initiator tRNA -- Initiation -- Elongation and termination -- Part 6: Part Of Tens -- 18: Ten great applications of biochemistry -- Ames test -- Pregnancy testing -- HIV testing -- Breast cancer testing -- Prenatal genetic testing -- PKU screening -- Genetically modified foods -- Genetic engineering -- Cloning -- Gene-replacement therapy -- 19: Ten biochemistry careers -- Research assistant -- Plant breeder -- Quality control analyst -- Clinical research associate -- Technical writer -- Biochemical development engineer -- Market research analyst -- Patent attorney -- Pharmaceutical sales -- Biostatistician -- Index.

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