Key Carbon-based Molecules in The Life Processes
The most notable groups of chemicals used in the processes of living organisms include:
- Proteins, which are the building blocks from which the structures of living organisms are constructed (this includes almost all enzymes, which catalyse organic chemical reactions)
- Nucleic acids, which carry genetic information
- Carbohydrates, which store energy in a form that can be used by living cells
- Lipids, which also store energy, but in a more concentrated form, and which may be stored for extended periods in the bodies of animals.
Read more about this topic: Carbon-based Life
Famous quotes containing the words key, life and/or processes:
“Experience has shown that the trade of the East is the key to national wealth and influence.”
—Chester A. Arthur (18291886)
“While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware.
Awake, Awake!”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“The vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical faculties, by no mental processes other than those which are practiced by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (182595)