[EstherGodoy]

Hi all, im doing first year biochemistry in an undergraduate degree. I have an exam coming up this week and am doing all my essay practice questions, i just cannot figure out what this question is asking me to do ? I can explain what each of a, b and c are, but i don't understand and cannot find out how they determine the activity of biomolecules?

QUESTION
Give an example to illustrate the significance of a. enantiomers b. conformers and c. geometric isomers in determining the activity of biomolecules.


Does anyone have any suggestions on what i can research or can point me in the right direction for me to answer this question?

thanks

[jetcaracer]

From what I know of organic chemistry the orientation of the reactants and the resultant could prevent and/or slow make one reaction happened over another reaction. Try searching up Sn1 , Sn2 reactions E1 and E2 might help or might not.

[Grundalizer]

Amino acids are an example of how important enantiomers are,  there are both R and S (or D and L since it's a biochemical compound) amino acids.  Our body uses ONLY the L-amino acids, which is pretty neat.

As for conformers or structural isomers, I'd do some googling as I can't think off the top of my head of an example.  I know I have heard of a drug that with a hydrogen at one position, it's a helpful drug, but if the hydrogen is switched to another position, it becomes a deadly neurotoxin.