San Diego School of Medicine scientist Professor Jamey Marth suggests the basic components of the cell [Nucleic Acids, Proteins, Lipids and Glycans] are based upon essentially 68 molecules To the commonly accepted 8 nucleosides of nucleic acids and the 20 amino-acids are added 8 lipid and 32 glycan molecules. To the Genome and the Proteome we can add the Glycome and Lipidome if we are to obtain a more complete accounting of the cellular processes that control the origin and development of living systems.
Professor Jamey D. Marth, 2008, A unified vision of the building blocks of life. Nature Cell Biology, Vol 10(9):1015.