Key functional groups to know for biochemistry

If you know these functional groups, can recognize them in the multitude of places they show up in biochemistry (regardless of whether you're seeing drawn-out structures, skeletal structures, condensed formulas, etc.), and know (or can deduce) a bit about their properties and reactivity, you can deduce and/or predict a lot about the molecules that contain them. And, thus, you'll be well on your way to succeeding in biochemistry (and hopefully enjoying the journey!) Be able to recognize (both structure and shorthand) and draw the following functional groups: Carbonyl Hydroxyl (alcohol)/hydroxylate Thiol (sulfhydryl)/thiolate Amine Amide Carboxylic acid/carboxylate (-COOH/COO-) Aldehyde (CHO) Ketone Ester Ether Thioester Thioether Methyl (Me) Acyl Acetyl (Ac) Phenyl (Ph) Phosphoryl (Ⓟ) You should also know their properties & reactivity (which you can figure out if you know their structure!) More to help you start out in biochemistry: https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/sta... & https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/365...