The four great Macromolecules

The four great Macromolecules

Meet Ziggy. Ziggy is a tiny, curious little cell. Today, he is walking around his hometown Cell-ville. He wants to find out what makes everything alive and full of energy. A friendly bird tells him, "Go down the road and meet the Four Macro-Builders. They run this whole town!"

Ziggy's first goes to the Power Plant, where he meets Caleb Carbohydrate. Caleb is a super fast, energetic character . Caleb yells, "My job is to give fast energy to the body so you can think, run, and jump Without me, the whole city would run out of energy and battery and fall asleep."

Caleb shows Ziggy how he is built. "Im pieced together like a train!" Caleb explains he points to his body, showing that his single train cars are pieces called monomers. When a bunch or a group of these cars connect together into a full train, they form a polymer

Ziggy asks Caleb where he likes to hang out in the real world. Caleb points to a kitchen table. "I live in foods we eat every day, like bread, pasta, apples, and bananas," Caleb says. "Eating these gives your body the instant spark it needs for recess!"

Next, Ziggy walks to Cell-ville downtown and meets Lily Lipid. Lily is relaxed,cozy, and wears a furry winter coat. "Caleb deals with the fast energy, but me I store long-term energy for later". Lily says "I also act like a waterproof shield to keep cells protected and safe from all the elements."

Lily says that she doesn't make the same long trains like Caleb. Instead of making those, her body is made of glycerol and fatty acids that are grouped tightly together. She then tells Ziggy that she enjoys to hide inside smooth, rich foods like butter, olive oil, and avocados.

Ziggy then goes to the Protein construction yard and meets Peter Protein. Peter is a strong, tough worker wearing a yellow construction hat. "I am the builder of the group," Peter said. "My job is to build and repair the body". I help heal your injured muscles and make your muscles grow stronger!"

Peter shows Ziggy how he was put together. "I am made of specific special pieces ," Peter explains. "Each certain piece is a monomer called an amino acid. When you put tons of them together into a long chain, it forms a polymer called a polypeptide." Peter says you can find him in foods like meat,eggs

At last, Ziggy enters the library and meets the the character with the most knowledge and wisdom of all: Nancy Nucleic Acid. Nancy wears reading glasses and holds a glowing book. "My job is to keep , store and pass down instructions for life," Nancy says. "I have the secret code that choses your eye color and how tall you will grow."

Nancy explains that her single building block nucleotides (the monomers). When millions of them twist up together, they make a awesome polymer chain called DNA. Ziggy smiles and waves goodbye to the four macromolecules and they became his friends. Now he knows how everything works in the body and finally went back home