Carbohydrates

Laraib Awan, Anna Roman, Mary Ward

The basics
↠ Importance: short term energy and building material for organisms
↠ Includes both sugars and polymers of sugar
↠ Simplest to Complex
✦ Monomer: monosaccharides
■ Simple sugars, what complex carbs are built from
✦ Disaccharides
■ Double sugars
■ Two monosaccharides joined by a covalent bonds
✦ Polymer: polysaccharides
■ Many sugar building blocks joined by dehydration synthesis
Monosaccharides
↠ Major nutrients for cells
↠ One carbon molecule
↠ Energy stored in C-C bonds
↠ Molecular formulas are some multiple of CH20
↠ Examples
✦ Glyceraldehyde
✦ Ribose
✦ Glucose
✦ Fructose
Disaccharides
↠ Composed of two monosaccharides joined by glycosidic linkage
✦ Covalent bond formed between two monosaccharides by a dehydration
reaction
✦ The most common is Sucrose
■ Glucose and Fructose
■ Plants use this to transport carbohydrates from the leaves to the roots
✦ Lactose, Maltose
Polysaccharides
↠ Macromolecules
↠ Hundreds to thousands of monosaccharides linked together with glycosidic
linkage
↠ Types
✦ Storage: store energy
■ Plants use starch to store energy
✦ Structural: provide support
■ Amylose- long straight unbranched chains
■ Pectins- many linked short amylose chains
Dehydration synthesis and Hydrolysis
↠ While bonding into polymers, dehydration synthesis occurs.
↠ This is the process of releasing water molecules as by products.
↠ A hydrogen atom will be taken from one monosaccharide and a hydroxide from
another, which are then combined with others to form a polysaccharide

Hydrolysis- the reverse process of dehydration synthesis

↠ Puts water back into the molecule to separate them into monosaccharides again.
Polysaccharides of Plants and Animals
Starch: plants store this in order to stockpile excess glucose

Glycogen: granules stored in muscle tissue and the liver

↠ Branched polysaccharide, short term energy

Cellulose: major component of tough walls that enclose plant cells

↠ Long chains, used for structure, not digestible, herbivores have a symbiotic relationship with
microbes

Chitin: carbohydrate used by arthropods to build exoskeletons