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Monomers are the simple subunits that are used to make polymers.
Carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids in biological systems are polymers
One way to think about the process of making and breaking down polymers is to use beads like this to visualize the process.
Single monomers (represented by these single beads), are linked together to form a chain
A polymer, then, is like this chain of linked monomers.
They can be all the same monomer like in this chain
For example, starch is a long chain of glucose monomers.
Or the monomers can all be different like in proteins and nucleic acids
Nucleic acids are made up of four different nucleotide monomers.
Whereas proteins are made up of up to 20 different amino acid monomers
Polymers are broken down via a hydrolysis reaction.
The polymers can be broken into smaller polymers and then those smaller polymers can be broken down.
Or, single monomers can broken off the end one by one until you are left just single monomers again