Carbon Makes up About 18% of Living Things

Carbon

●  Carbon makes up about 18% of living things

●  Life on earth is considered carbon based life

●  Carbon forms the backbone of organic molecules

●  Carbon can form 4 covalent bonds

●  Carbon can form single bonds, double bonds, or triple bonds

●  All the different combination of bonds carbon can form allows carbon to form a variety of different structures (straight chains, branched chains, rings, etc.) that make up all the large complex molecules needed for life.

Organic Molecules (Organic Compounds)

●  Primarily the result of the activity of living things

●  Primarily made of carbon (carbon, hydrogen, and usually others like oxygen)

●  Usually have a lot of C-H bonds (carbon-hydrogen bonds)

●  Usually biological in nature

●  Organic compounds include carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids (our macromolecules)

Macromolecule = Large organic molecules (polymers) that are comprised of smaller organic subunits (monomers)

●  Monomer = Single unit or building block of a polymer

●  Polymer = Large molecules that consist of many repeating subunits called monomers

●  Condensation Synthesis = Loss of a water molecule between two monomers to form a covalent bond between monomers

●  Condensation Synthesis is also known as Dehydration Synthesis

●  Hydrolysis= Addition of a water molecule to break apart a macromolecule

Carbohydrates

●  Structure - Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen in a 1:2:1 ratio

○  Monomer = monosaccharides

○  Glucose C6H12O6

●  Function - Most important purpose is to provide energy to cells

●  Monosaccharides (one sugar)

●  Disaccharides (two sugars)

●  Polysaccharides (many sugars)

○  Glycogen - Sugar storage in animals

○  Starch - Sugar storage in plants

○  Cellulose - Plant cell walls

●  Comes from fruits, vegetables, whole grains

Proteins

●  Structure - Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen

○  Monomer = amino acids

○  Dipeptides (Two amino acids)

○  Polypeptides (Many amino acids)

●  Function - Growth and Structure

○  Muscle growth

○  Maintain body tissues

○  Cell structure

●  Comes from eggs, meat, milk, fish, nuts, beans, etc

Lipids

●  Structure - Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen

○  Monomer = fatty acids

●  Function - Energy Storage (long term)

●  Comes from animal meat and vegetable oil

●  Triglycerides, Phospholipids, steroids, waxes

Nucleic Acids

●  Structure - Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Phosphorous

○  Monomer = Nucleotide

■  Sugar - phosphate backbone with a nitrogenous base attached

●  Function - Information Processing

●  DNA and RNA