Non-Living Chemicals That Are Necessary for Living Organisms

MacromoleculesMacromolecules

 Non-living chemicals that are necessary for living organisms  Made up of: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, + nitrogen  Attained through nutrients in the food you eat and in the air you breathe and water you drink  Includes: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins and Nucleic Acids

ChemicalsChemicals ofof LifeLife Carbohydrates:  Composed of carbon (carbo-), hydrogen and oxygen (-hydrates)  Most important energy source for cells  Also used as a structural material for cell walls  Organic chemical compounds  Can be found as straight chains or in rings  Monosaccharides are single sugar units: Glucose, Fructose  Disaccharides are two sugar units that have “condensed” – lost a water molecule between them – and joined together. Now two sugar units make up one molecule: Sucrose, Maltose  Polysaccharides are long chains of sugar units joined together; Starch, Cellulose and Glycogen  The condensing reaction is called dehydration Synthesis

Lipids:  Most common lipid is composed of a glycerol molecule and three fatty acid tails  Lipids can be helpful – phospholipids in the plasma membrane, and harmful – fats that can cause the clogging of arteries and there is also the steroid category - cholesterol  The lipids store energy, after the glycogen stores are full, in the form of adipose – fat  Lipids can be saturated – all single bonds between the carbon chains and the maximum number of hydrogen present – butter Or unsaturated where there are at least double bonds present between carbons and there are fewer than the maximum number of hydrogen – oils, canola or olive (liquid)  Cholesterol is important in the plasma membrane, it helps to produce hormones (male and female sex hormones) and it clogs the arteries when in excess because it joins with fats to create plaque  http://www.chemistryland.com/ElementarySchool/Building Blocks/BuildingOrganic.htm

Proteins:  These molecules are NOT used as energy storage but they are used to build cell structures  Composed of C, H, O and Nitrogen  20 different amino acids are the building blocks for proteins  The order in which they combine determines the type of protein  They are Enzymes – used to speed up chemical reactions in the body  They can rebuild structures at the rate of one million per second – just for red blood cells alone!  There are only eight amino acids your body cannot make and they must be gained from the food we eat