upgrade
upgrade
Fiveable

🧬AP Biology Review

QR code for AP Biology practice questions

AP Biology Unit 1 Review - Chemistry of Life

🧬AP Biology
Review

AP Biology Unit 1 Review - Chemistry of Life

Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025

What you need to know for AP Bio Unit 1

šŸŽ„Live Stream Replay - Unit 1 Review Part IĀ 

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Unit 1 Review Part II

Here's an organized outline for ap bio unit 1 reviews. This outline has been adapted from the 2019 course description published by College Board. You can use this to build an ap bio unit 1 study guide.

šŸ«For the 2020-2021 school year, Fiveable is offering semester longĀ AP BIO courses online featuring:

       šŸŽ’project-based and asynchronous learning

       šŸŽ’live AP BIO chat

       šŸŽ’writer's workshops w/ exam readersĀ 
Pep mascot
more resources to help you study
cheatsheetscore calculatorkey terms

Structure of Water and Hydrogen Bonding

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Structure of Water & Hydrogen Bonding

  • The sequence and make up of all molecules determine the property of that molecule.
  • Water is a unique molecule that is polar due to an unequal distribution of charge. The properties of water and essential to the existence of life on earth.
  • Water is able to form hydrogen bonds with other water molecules due to its polarity, and this contributes to the properties of cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension.

Elements of Life

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Elements of Life

  • The elements of life are organized on the periodic table.
  • The elements most common to biological molecules are carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus.

Introduction to Biological Macromolecules

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Introduction to Biological Macromolecules

  • All living organisms are made up of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids.
  • Monomers are bound together in order to form these polymers.
  • Hydrolysis and dehydration synthesis are used to cleave and form covalent bonds between monomers

Properties of Biological Molecules

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Properties of Biological Molecules

  • The way in which a polymer is assembled contributes to the overall function of that polymer. This includes:
    • Nucleotides in nucleic acids, the amino acid order in proteins, sugar monomers in carbohydrates, and the saturation of lipids

Structure and Function of Biological Molecules

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Structure & Function of Biological Molecules

  • Amino acids may be polar, nonpolar, sulfur-containing, acidic, or basic. The function of a protein depends on what amino acids make up a protein.
  • The order of nucleotides in DNA make up its genetic code. DNA is antiparallel, forms a double helix, and contains hydrogen bonds between nucleotides.
  • Lipids are nonpolar and hydrophobic. The presence of double bonds in lipids contributes to whether or not it is a saturated or unsaturated fat and contributes to its function.
  • Carbohydrates are broken down to make energy. The complexity of the carbohydrate structure determines the amount of energy needed to break it down.

Nucleic Acids

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Nucleic Acids

  • DNA and RNA are similar structures with the exceptions of a few key differences.
    • DNA is usually double stranded whereas RNA is usually single stranded.
    • DNA has a deoxyribose sugar, whereas RNA has a ribose sugar.
    • DNA has thymine, adenine, cytosine, and guanine, whereas RNA replaces thymine with uracil.

Unit 1 Vocab

  • Macromolecule
  • Lipid
  • Fatty acid
  • Carbohydrate
  • Monosaccharide
  • Polysaccharide
  • Peptide bond
  • Amino acid
  • Nucleic acid
  • Nucleotide
  • Sugar-phosphate bond
  • Ribose
  • Deoxyribose
  • Hydrogen bond
  • Polar
  • Nonpolar
  • Cohesion
  • Adhesion
  • Surface tension
  • Hydrolysis
  • Dehydration synthesis
  • Monomer
  • Polymer
  • Phospholipid
  • Semiconservative replication

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Unit 1 Review Part IĀ 

šŸŽ„Ā Live Stream Replay - Unit 1 Review Part II