BIO152H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Glycosidic Bond, Monosaccharide, Triose
Document Summary
Sugars and other carbohydrates are highly variable in structure. Monosaccharides are monomers that polymerize to form polymers called polysaccharides, via different types of glycosidic linkages. Carbohydrates perform a wide variety of functions in cells, ranging from energy storage to formation of tough structural fibers. Carbohydrates are important building blocks in the synthesis of other molecules. Although polysaccharides are unable to store information, they do display information on the outer surface of cells in the form of glycoproteins proteins joined to carbohydrates by covalent bonds. Glycoproteins are key molecules in cell-cell recognition and cell-cell signaling. Plants store sugars as starch, which is made of many -glucose monomers joined by -1,4- glycosidic linkages. This causes the monomer chain to form a helix. Starch can be branched (amylose) or unbranched (amylopectin). Branching occurs when glycosidic linkages form between carbon 1 of a glucose monomer on one strand and carbon 6 of a glucose monomer on another strand.
