General Veterinary Biochemistry

COURSE OVERVIEW

• The course deals with the biophysical principles governing the assembly of macromolecules and the structure, chemistry and biological importance of four important biomolecules viz. Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
• The chapter on carbohydrates deals with the structure and chemistry of the most abundant class of biological molecules. The chapter focuses on different classes of carbohydrates namely monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides.
• Lipids include a diverse class of compounds which are non polymeric. The chapter deals with fatty acids, triglycerides, phospholipids and steroids. The chapter also includes the discussion on cell membranes and its properties.
• Chapter on proteins focuses on aminoacids which are basic building block of proteins, their chemistry and reactions. The chapter also focuses on polypeptides and their supramolecular assembly. The different levels of protein structure is discussed in detail.
• The final chapter on nucleic acids focuses on the chemistry of purines and pyrimidines, nucleosides and nucleotides. Nucleic acids namely DNA, RNA, their structure, topology and function are discussed in detail.