Because of the unique property of carbon in which it can bind to many elements including itself, there are a variety of organic compounds. For long chains of organic compounds like nucleotides, polysaccharides and proteins, their basic building block are nucleic acids, sugars and amino acids, respectively. The general structure of nucleotides has a base sugar, a nitrogenous base and a phosphate group. For polysachharides and protein, the sugars and amino acids are linked together, respectively. The biological function of nucleotides is to carry the genetic information and help build proteins. Polysaccharides and proteins are needed by the body to do processes for metabolism.