1. Macromolecules
How life works.

2. Macromolecules
• Macromolecules are found in
– The food you eat
– The silk a spider makes
– The muscles in your body
• “Macro” means large molecules

3. Types of macromolecules
• Carbohydrates
• Lipids
• Proteins
• Nucleic Acids

4. Carbohydrates
• Source of energy
– Gained through food you eat
– Energy is changed in our bodies to energy
we can use
• Form building materials
– Chitin (pronounced “kite-in”) in insects
forms their shell
– Cellulose in plants forms the cell wall which
allows the plant to stand up without a
skeleton

5. Carbohydrates
• Simple and complex sugars
– Disaccharide (pronounced: “die-sack-a-
ride”)
• Made of 2 sugars
• Table sugar is an example (sucrose)
– Complex sugars
• Starch found in plants like potatoes

6. Lipids
• Fats
– Store huge amounts of energy
– Saturated
• Solid at room temperature like butter
– Unsaturated
• Liquid at room temperature like vegetable oil
• Fats are hydrophobic (literally meaning
“afraid of water”)
– Fats don’t mix with water

7. Proteins
• Have many different shapes and jobs
• The function of the protein is based
on its shape
– Examples: hair, fingernails, enzymes that
help break down food in your stomach
• Enzymes
– Make chemical reactions happen faster
• Made of amino (“a-me-no”) acids

8. Nucleic (“new-clay-ick”) Acids
• DNA is a nucleic acid
– Carries all instructions for building an
organism
– In every cell of the organism
– Passed from parent to offspring
– Found in the nucleus
– Made of nucleotides (“new-clee-oh-
tides”)