Biology 1 EOC
2021 SC College and Career Ready Science Standards

LS1-Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

B-LS1-1. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins, which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
B-LS1-4. Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.
B-LS1-5. Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.
B-LS1-6. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for how carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from sugar molecules may combine with other elements to form amino acids and other large carbon-based molecules necessary for essential life processes.
​B-LS1-7. Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules are broken and the bonds in new compounds are formed, resulting in a net transfer of energy.

What is phenylalanine?
Phenylalanine is one of the body’s essential amino acids. Amino acids are the basic building blocks for proteins. Although there are hundreds of amino acids in nature, humans only use 20 amino acids to make every protein in the body. These amino acids can be classified as non-essential or essential, depending on whether the body can synthesize them or acquire them through protein in the diet.    

Information from https://www.osmosis.org/answers/phenylalanine  

Phenylalanine plays a vital role in the biosynthesis of other amino acids and is essential in the structure and function of many proteins and enzymes. Most dietary phenylalanine is converted into another amino acid, tyrosine, by the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) with the help of a cofactor called tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4). ​

1. Which of the following is the correct classification of Phenylalanine (phe)?
nitrogenous base
amino acid
codon
enzyme
protein

2.  Which DNA codons code for phenylalanine?

3.  How does enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) likely convert phe into tyr?

4.  Read the first paragraph of the article.  Make a graphic organizer/timeline of the transformations that must then take place.  Be sure to include the body functions that are involved/controlled following the transformations.