{"id":130,"date":"2024-03-03T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.justwrite.in\/interactive-biology-secondary\/?post_type=chapter&p=130"},"modified":"2024-11-30T06:24:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:24:04","slug":"1-6-chemical-constituents-of-cell","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.justwrite.in\/interactive-biology-secondary\/chapter\/1-6-chemical-constituents-of-cell\/","title":{"raw":"1.6.Chemical Constituents of Cell- Carbohydrates","rendered":"1.6.Chemical Constituents of Cell- Carbohydrates"},"content":{"raw":"

Elements in Living Cells<\/h2>\r\nThe most abundant element in cells include\u00a0 hydrogen (H), followed by carbon (C), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and sulfur (S). These elements are the <\/span>[pb_glossary id=\"479\"]macronutrients[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>, and they account for about 99% of the dry weight of cells.\r\n\r\nSome elements called as[pb_glossary id=\"480\"] micro nutrients or trace elements<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary] as they are required only in small amounts by the cell. These elements\u00a0 include sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), molybdenum (Mo), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), manganese (Mn), or vanadium (Va). \u00a0These\u00a0 are essential to the function of many biochemical reactions, and, therefore, are essential to life.\r\n

Molecules in Cell<\/h1>\r\n\"Carbon\r\n

\"Molecules in cell\"<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<\/span>Openstax<\/a><\/a><\/a>\u00a0is licensed under\u00a0<\/span>CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/p>\r\nLiving organisms also contain\u00a0<\/span>inorganic compounds<\/strong> mainly water and salts .Inorganic compounds do not contain carbon. Carbon oxides and carbonates are exceptions; they contain carbon but are considered inorganic because they do not contain hydrogen. Inorganic compounds account for about 1%\u20131.5% of the mass of a living cell.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWater accounts for about 70% of a cell's weight, <\/span>\r\n\r\nCells contain four major families of small organic molecules. The small organic molecules of the cell are carbon-based compounds\u00a0 whose molecular weights\u00a0 range\u00a0 from 100 to 1000 and contain up to 30 or\u00a0 more carbon atoms. They are usually found free in solution and have many different fates. <\/span>They molecules\u00a0 can\u00a0 be as\u00a0 monomers\u00a0 or they can join to form polymeric\u00a0 macromolecules\u00a0 like <\/span>the proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSome of these molecules act as energy sources and some of them\u00a0 are broken down and transformed into other small molecules through various intracellular metabolic pathways. <\/span>Many small molecules have more than one role in the cell. <\/span>Small organic molecules are much less abundant than the organic macromolecules.\u00a0 They constitute\u00a0 \u00a0only about one-tenth of the total mass of organic matter in a cell . The four major small organic molecule of the cell include the\u00a0<\/span>sugars<\/i>, the\u00a0<\/span>fatty acids<\/i>, the\u00a0<\/span>amino acids<\/i>, and the\u00a0<\/span>nucleotides<\/i> .<\/span>\r\n

Significant Functional Groups in molecules of the cell<\/h2>\r\n\"Table\r\n

\"Functional groups \"<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<\/span>Openstax<\/a><\/a><\/a>\u00a0is licensed under\u00a0<\/span>CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/p>\r\nThe symbol R in the table stands for \u201cresidue\u201d and represents the remainder of the molecule. R might symbolize just a single hydrogen atom or it may represent a group of many atoms.<\/span>\r\n

Macromolecules<\/h2>\r\nCarbon chains form the skeletons of most organic molecules and functional groups combine with this chain to form biomolecules. As these biomolecules are\u00a0 large they are called\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>[pb_glossary id=\"481\"]macromolecule<\/span><\/strong>s.<\/strong><\/span>[\/pb_glossary] Biological macromolecules are formed by linking together a\u00a0 number of identical, or very similar, smaller organic molecules. <\/span>Cells contain four main groups of carbon-containing macromolecules:. They are\u00a0 <\/span>polysaccharides<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>proteins<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>lipids<\/span>, and\u00a0<\/span>nucleic acids<\/span>. The<\/span>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Monomers <\/strong><\/td>\r\nMacromolecule<\/strong><\/td>\r\nFunctions<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
Sugars<\/td>\r\nCarbohydrates-Polysaccharides<\/td>\r\nEnergy storage, receptors, food, structural role in plants, fungal cell walls, exoskeletons of insects<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Fatty acids<\/td>\r\nLipids<\/td>\r\nEnergy storage, membrane structure, insulation, hormones, pigments<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Nucleotides<\/td>\r\nNucleic acids<\/td>\r\nStorage and transfer of genetic information<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Aminoacids<\/td>\r\nProteins<\/td>\r\nEnzymes, structure, receptors, transport, structural role in the cytoskeleton of a cell and the extracellular matrix<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

\u00a0Carbohydrates <\/span><\/h2>\r\n

These are abundant biomolecule on earth and are abundant in terrestrial ecosystem. They are\u00a0 primarily combination of carbon and water. They\u00a0have the empirical formula (CH<\/span>2<\/sub>O)<\/span>n<\/sub>, where\u00a0<\/span>n<\/em> is the number of repeated units. These molecules are regarded as\u00a0<\/span>\u201chydrated\u201d carbon atom chains in which water molecules attach to each carbon atom, leading to the term \u201c[pb_glossary id=\"844\"]carbohydrates.\u201d[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Functions of carbohydrates include;<\/p>\r\n\r\n