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GCSE Biology · key term
A small molecule that can join to other similar molecules to form a polymer.
Used by OCR
Specification B1.2a, B1.3d, B1.3e · Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher)
A small molecular unit that can join to other units to form a polymer.
Revise: DNA as a polymerA polymer is a large molecule formed when many smaller units are joined together. These smaller units are called monomers. A useful representation is a long chain: each link represents a monomer, while the complete linked chain represents the polymer.
Do not call every carbohydrate a polymer. A single sugar molecule is a monomer; polysaccharides such as starch, glycogen and cellulose are polymers.
Use the words monomer and polymer precisely: amino acids are the monomers, while a protein is the polymer.
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A small molecule that can be joined to other similar molecules to build a larger molecule.
Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher), Paper 4 (Higher)
A smaller repeating unit from which a polymer is made; a nucleotide is a monomer of DNA.
Revise: NucleotidesA large molecule built in this way is called a polymer, and its smaller repeating units are called monomers.