8 Chapter 1 The Facts of Life: Chemistry Is the Logic of Biological Phenomena

O C The inorganic precursors:

O (18–64 daltons)
Carbon dioxide, Water,
Ammonia, Nitrogen(N2 ), –
Nitrate(NO3 )

Carbon dioxide
O Metabolites:
(50–250 daltons)
Glucose, Fructose-1,6-
H C bisphosphate,
O
Glyceraldehyde-3-
H C C – phosphate, 3-
H O Phosphoglyceric acid,
Pyruvate Pyruvate, Citrate, Succinate

Building blocks:
H (100–350 daltons)
H H O Amino acids, Nucleotides,
H
H N
C
C – Monosaccharides, Fatty acids,
+ C O Glycerol
H
H

Alanine (an amino acid)

Macromolecules: (103–
–OOC 10 9 daltons) Proteins,
Nucleic acids,
Polysaccharides, Lipids
FIg u r e 1.8 Molecular organization in the cell is a
hierarchy.
NH 3 +
Protein

Supramolecular
complexes: (106–10 9
daltons) Ribosomes,
Cytoskeleton, Multienzyme
complexes

Organelles:
Nucleus, Mitochondria,
Chloroplasts, Endoplasmic
reticulum, Golgi apparatus,
Vacuole

The cell

precursors are converted to metabolites, simple organic compounds that are

intermedi- ates in cellular energy transformation and in the biosynthesis of various
sets of building blocks: amino acids, sugars, nucleotides, fatty acids, and glycerol.
Through covalent linkage of these building blocks, the macromolecules are
constructed: proteins, poly- saccharides, polynucleotides (DNA and RNA), and
lipids. (Strictly speaking, lipids

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