Hi I'm having major problems with monomers in proteins. One what is a monomer Two what is it doing in a protien?
Much thanks,
Rosie
A "monomer" is a single unit of a polymer and a polymer is just a bunch of monomers (single units) hooked together. Teflon is a polymer. It is made by hooking a lot of monomer units of tetrafluoroethylene, F2C=CF2, together (at the double bond so it looks like this, -(F2C-CF2)-.The double bond simple opens up, and another unit of F2C=CF2 hooks to the left side and another F2C=CF2 hooks to the other side. That continues until the raaction stops. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are polymers. For example, table sugar, a disaccharide, consists of two units of simple sugars hooked together (fructose and glucose are monosaccharides and they combine to form sucrose, a disaccharide). Carbohydrates are just many more simple units of largely monosaccharides to form starch which is a polysaccharide.)
thank you!