A. Organic compounds are those containing carbon, typically bonded to hydrogen, oxygen, and other carbon atoms

B. Carbohydrates contain carbon:hydrogen:oxygen in a roughly 1:2:1 ratio

• Carbohydrates are used by organisms for their stored energy, or for structural purposes
• Monosaccharides, such as glucose, fructose and ribose, are simple carbohydrates, usually composed of a ring structure
• Disaccharides, such as sucrose and lactose, form when two monosaccharides are joined together
• Polysaccharides, such as cellulose and glycogen, form when many monosaccharides are joined together

• Lipids are used by organisms for long-term energy storage, making membranes, steroid hormones, pigments such as chlorophyll, and a variety of other uses
• Fats are composed of three fatty acid molecules bonded to a single glycerol molecule
• Saturated fats, which are solid at room temperature, are found in animal cells, and contain only single bonds within each fatty acid tail
• Unsaturated fats, which are liquid at room temperature, are found in plant cells, and contain some double bonds within their fatty acid tails

• Proteins are made by joining together many amino acid molecules
• Twenty different amino acids are found in living things
• Proteins are used by living organisms for a wide variety of purposes, such as hemoglobin, muscles, hormones, antibodies, enzymes, skin and ligaments
• The properties of each protein are a function of the combination of polar and nonpolar amino acids that together produce the unique three dimensional shape of the protein

• Nucleic acids are composed of nucleotides
• DNA is the nucleic acid that typically contains the master copy of genetic information that can be passed on to successive generations
• RNA refers to the types of nucleic acid that copy genetic information from DNA and use it to construct proteins
• ATP is a nucleic acid which acts as the energy currency of all cells, supplying the energy required to run chemical reactions in cells