Largest organic compouds

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Only one person has answered correctly. DNA is by far the largest organic polymer in existence. Nothing else comes close. Let’s take human chromosome 1 (the largest human chromosome but not the largest chromosome in nature) as an example:

A chromosome is comprised of one continuous double stranded molecule of DNA. The two stands are held together by hydrogen bonding, so each single strand is its own distinct molecule.

Chromosome 1 has 247,249,719 bases (each strand).

• Purines (adenine and guanine) have 5 carbon atoms.

• Pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine) have 4 carbon atoms.

• Ribose has 5 carbon atoms.

• Phosphate has no carbons (PO[sub]4[/sub][sup]-[/sup])

So, let’s use the average of the number of carbons found in purines and pyrimidines for each position in the DNA strand:
4.5 carbon atoms.

Each position on the strand is comprised of a base (either purine or pyrimidine), a ribose and a phosphate. These three items together are called a “nucleotide”.

Total carbons for each nucleotide (base + ribose + phosphate) is:
4.5 + 5 + 0 = 9.5 carbons.

Multiply this by the number of nucleotides in chromosome 1........

9.5 x 247,249,719 = 2,348,872,330 carbons!!!!

My quick calculation of the complete formula for the DNA molecule in chr1 is:

C[sub]2348872330[/sub]H[sub]2719746909[/sub]N[sub]741749157[/sub]O[sub]1483498314[/sub]P[sub]247249719[/sub]

This may be a little off as I have taken averages for the composition of the four nitrogenous bases, but it will be pretty close.

 

[Positron]

Well I would agree DNA is the largest organic molecule but that's something most people know already. I'm still curious as to the Second largest though.

 

[Facial]

DNA is a coded polymer, meaning that it would have monotonous digital properties.

Just about every other polymer, outside RNA, would carry no information and have a single monotonous analog property.

A protein is very large, and in general they have non-monotonous, or unique, analog properties.

It really depends on what functional properties you want to look at.
If it's all-out biggest, then I would probably say a protein polymer, such as spider silk (I don't know the actual one).

 

[Chuch]

Buckyballs are kinda large but they have a long way to go for being the largest. However they are most certainly smooth and very nice to look at. Honestly I find fullerenes very impressive. You can hear about new idea or invention concerning these almost every day.

 

[exchemist]

I'd nominate graphite I think. Any giant structure can be made large enough to exceed the molecular weight of the largest molecule. And graphite is simply the extreme case of the fused ring category of organic compounds.

But in a way it's a slightly silly exercise.

 

[DaveC426913]

I'd nominate graphite I think. Any giant structure can be made large enough to exceed the molecular weight of the largest molecule. And graphite is simply the extreme case of the fused ring category of organic compounds.

But in a way it's a slightly silly exercise.

Is graphite a molecule? I thought it would be a crystal. Aren't they bound differently?

 

[exchemist]

Is graphite a molecule? I thought it would be a crystal. Aren't they bound differently?

Yes, it's a giant structure. But the OP asked about organic compounds, not molecules specifically. (And molecules form crystals, too.)

I have my tongue a tiny bit in my cheek, but when you consider fused ring systems, for example pyrene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrene
or the asphlatene family (familiar to me from my time in the hydrocarbon industry): http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images...e/2015/OB/c5ob00836k/c5ob00836k-f1_hi-res.gif, you can easily see that by fusing more and more 6-members aromatic rings you eventually end up with a graphite sheet.

One can argue the toss as to whether graphite should be classed as "organic" or "inorganic", but it is in effect the limit case of a fused aromatic ring structure, with sheets stacked on tope of one another and bound by Van der Waals forces.

 

[DaveC426913]

One can argue the toss as to whether graphite should be classed as "organic" or "inorganic"

I understood that carbon alone is not considered a sufficient qualifier to be organic.

Seems by some accounts, organic is synonymous with hydrocarbons,i.e.: carbon backbone with hydrogens.

 

[Write4U]

From wiki

Biology and its subsets of biochemistry and molecular biologystudy biomolecules and their reactions. Most biomolecules are organic compounds, and just four elements—oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen—make up 96% of the human body's mass. But many other elements, such as the various biometals, are present in small amounts. biometals, are present in small amounts.

Hazen calls these the cause for the rare species which emerge in specific environments, the rare species which combined have a larger bio-mass than the entire population of the earth.

The uniformity of specific types of molecules (the biomolecules) and of some metabolic pathways as invariant features between the diversity of life forms is called "biochemical universals"[2] or "theory of material unity of the living beings", a unifying concept in biology, along with cell theory and evolution theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomolecule

Well, we know that we have at least one chromosomes which is twice as long as was originally designed.

Chromosome 2 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 2 is the second-largest human chromosome, spanning more than 242 million base pairs [/quote]
https://everipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome_2_(human)

And an actual visual of the modified chromosomes is demonstrated here:

Introduction
All great apes apart from man have 24 pairs of chromosomes. There is therefore a hypothesis that the common ancestor of all great apes had 24 pairs of chromosomes and that the fusion of two of the ancestor's chromosomes created chromosome 2 in humans. The evidence for this hypothesis is very strong.

http://www.evolutionpages.com/chromosome_2.htm

One less chromosome than apes, but twice its normal size....

 

[Write4U]

Yes, it's a giant structure. But the OP asked about organic compounds, not molecules specifically. (And molecules form crystals, too.)

I have my tongue a tiny bit in my cheek, but when you consider fused ring systems, for example pyrene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrene
or the asphlatene family (familiar to me from my time in the hydrocarbon industry): http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images...e/2015/OB/c5ob00836k/c5ob00836k-f1_hi-res.gif, you can easily see that by fusing more and more 6-members aromatic rings you eventually end up with a graphite sheet.

One can argue the toss as to whether graphite should be classed as "organic" or "inorganic", but it is in effect the limit case of a fused aromatic ring structure, with sheets stacked on tope of one another and bound by Van der Waals forces.

Was looking for a home for this little tidbit. This may be of general interest. A new carbon!

Chemists have created and imaged a new form of carbon
The molecule called cyclocarbon joins other carbon forms, like buckyballs and carbon nanotubes

https://www.sciencenews.org/article..._medium=email&utm_campaign=editorspicks081819

 

[exchemist]

Was looking for a home for this little tidbit. This may be of general interest. A new carbon!

https://www.sciencenews.org/article..._medium=email&utm_campaign=editorspicks081819

Thanks for this. I don't quite understand how the apparent 9 sided ring is made up, given the structure they describe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclo(18)carbon

By rights it ought to be aromatic, as it has 4n+2 electrons in a ring of conjugated π-bonds. If so then it is not really correct to draw it as simple alternating single and triple bonds. But I don't see any reference to aromaticity in the articles about it. Curious. I've asked one of my old tutors, who worked on aromatic ring structures, about it.

 

[Write4U]

But I don't see any reference to aromaticity in the articles about it. Curious. I've asked one of my old tutors, who worked on aromatic ring structures, about it

I did notice this qualifier

The high reactivity of cyclocarbon and cyclocarbon oxides allows covalent coupling between molecules to be induced by atom manipulation, opening an avenue for the synthesis of other carbon allotropes and carbon-rich materials from the coalescence of cyclocarbon molecules.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/08/14/science.aay1914

Would that suggest the behavior of aromatics?

 

[RainbowSingularity]

What is the largest organic compound with the most carbon and hydrogen atoms. Its most likely going to be a fat but I don't know.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...he-armillaria-ostoyae-fungus-2017-5?r=US&IR=T

It’s an organism that covers 2,385 acres (almost 4 square miles) of the Malheur National Forest in Oregon.

 

[exchemist]

I did notice this qualifier
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/08/14/science.aay1914

Would that suggest the behavior of aromatics?

No.

It probably refers to the steric strain inherent in bending the bonding out of its preferred configuration. A system of alternating single and triple bonds would naturally be linear. So bending it into a ring involves a suboptimal overlap of the p orbitals in the π bonds that are in the plane of the ring. The Wiki link I provided includes an estimate for this "strain energy", i.e. the amount by which the molecule is less stable than the bonds would be, if allowed to take up their preferred linear configuration.

 

[Frank Schmid]

PG5 is 10 nanometers in diameter, Molecule has about 15 million carbon and 40 milliom hydrogen. Its molecular weight is 200 million g/mol (approx). This is far bigger than the previous record-holder, polystyrene polymers that were only 40 million hydrogen atoms.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

What is the largest organic compound with the most carbon and hydrogen atoms. Its most likely going to be a fat but I don't know.

compound = a mix of things
organic = living ? or = biological components i.e hydrogen/water/etc...

the ocean occurred to me as a question of if the ocean is by its nature an organic compound
is there a delineation point between dead water and living water by the O2 content etc .. ?
is this transferable to suggest the ocean its self has a state of "living" or "livability" that potentiates the nature of its body encompassing a state of entity by its capacity to function life in it(compound)... ?

the magic soup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primordial_soup

Primordial soup, or prebiotic soup (also sometimes referred as prebiotic broth), is the hypothetical set of conditions present on the Earth around 4.2 to 4.0 billions of years ago. It is a fundamental aspect to the heterotrophic theory of the origin of life, first proposed by Alexander Oparin in 1924, and John Burdon Sanderson Haldane in 1929.[1][2]