1D1:ThereareseveralhypothesesaboutthenaturaloriginoflifeonEarth,eachwith

supportingscientificevidence.

a.2Inturn,thesemoleculesservedasmonomersorbuildingblocksfortheformationofmore
complexmolecules,includingaminoacidsandnucleotides.

a.3Thejoiningofthesemonomersproducedpolymerswiththeabilitytoreplicate,storeand
transferinformation.

1D2:Scientificevidencefrommanydifferentdisciplinessupportsmodelsoftheoriginof
life.

b.1Scientificevidenceincludesmolecularbuildingblocksthatarecommontoalllifeforms.

b.2Scientificevidenceincludesacommongeneticcode.

2A3:Organismsmustexchangematterwiththeenvironmenttogrow,reproduceand
maintainorganization.

a.1Carbonmovesfromtheenvironmenttoorganismswhereitisusedtobuildcarbohydrates,
proteins,lipidsornucleicacids.Carbonisusedinstoragecompoundsandcellformationinall
organisms.

a.2Nitrogenmovesfromtheenvironmenttoorganismswhereitisusedinbuildingproteinsand
nucleicacids.Phosphorusmovesfromtheenvironmenttoorganismswhereitisusedinnucleic
acidsandcertainlipids.

a.3Livingsystemsdependonpropertiesofwaterthatresultfromitspolarityandhydrogen
bonding.

4A1:Thesubcomponentsofbiologicalmoleculesandtheirsequencedeterminethe
propertiesofthatmolecule.

a.1Innucleicacids,biologicalinformationisencodedinsequencesofnucleotidemonomers.
Eachnucleotidehasstructuralcomponents:afivecarbonsugar(deoxyriboseorribose),a
phosphateandanitrogenbase(adenine,thymine,guanine,cytosineoruracil).DNAandRNA
differinfunctionanddifferslightlyinstructure,andthesestructuraldifferencesaccountforthe
differingfunctions.

a.2Inproteins,thespecificorderofaminoacidsinapolypeptide(primarystructure)interacts
withtheenvironmenttodeterminetheoverallshapeoftheprotein,whichalsoinvolves
secondarytertiaryandquaternarystructureand,thus,itsfunction.TheRgroupofanamino

acidcanbecategorizedbychemicalproperties(hydrophobic,hydrophilicandionic),andthe
interactionsoftheseRgroupsdeterminestructureandfunctionofthatregionoftheprotein.

a.3Ingeneral,lipidsarenonpolarhowever,phospholipidsexhibitstructuralproperties,with
polarregionsthatinteractwithotherpolarmoleculessuchaswater,andwithnonpolarregions
wheredifferencesinsaturationdeterminethestructureandfunctionoflipids.

a.4Carbohydratesarecomposedofsugarmonomerswhosestructuresandbondingwitheach
otherbydehydrationsynthesisdeterminethepropertiesandfunctionsofthemolecules.
Illustrativeexamplesinclude:celluloseversusstarch.

B:Directionalityinfluencesstructureandfunctionofthepolymer
.

b1.Nucleicacidshaveends,definedbytheand5'carbonsofthesugarinthenucleotide,that
determinethedirectioninwhichcomplementarynucleotidesareaddedduringDNAsynthesis
andthedirectioninwhichtranscriptionoccurs.

b2.ProteinshaveanaminoNH2endandacarboxylCOOHend,andconsistofalinear
sequenceofaminoacidsconnectedbytheformationofpeptidebondsbydehydrationsynthesis
betweentheaminoandcarboxylgroupsofadjacentmonomers.

b3.Thenatureofthebondingbetweencarbohydratesubunitsdeterminestheirrelative
orientationinthecarbohydrate,whichthendeterminesthesecondarystructureofthe
carbohydrate.