BIOLOGY 1A03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Plant Cell, Chitin, Amylopectin

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOLOGY 1A03
• Professor: Lovaye Kajiura

Document Summary

Carbohydrates are formed from monomer units of monosaccharaides that form small polymers (oligosaccharides), and then go to form large polymers (polysaccharides) General formula (ch2o)n where n is the number of carbon hydrate groups: misleading because it claims carbohydrates have only carbon and water, but it has lot of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. 3 carbon sugar= triose, 5 carbon sugar= pentose (rna), 6 carbon sugar= hexose (glucose) Varying spatial arrangement of atoms: e. g. glucose and galactose are optical isomers (refer to figure 5. 2) Examples- ribose (rna), and deocyribose( dna), glucose (starch, cellulose, glycogen), galactose(cartilage) In aqueous solutions, sugars tend to form ring structures- alpha glucose and beta glucose. Simplest polysaccharide is 2 simple sugar known as a disaccharide: 2 linking sugars can be identical (maltose) or different (lactose) Lactose intolerance- adults do not produce sufficient amounts of lactase. Lactase is enzyme which splits lactose into glucose + galactose: solution- avoid dairy products or take a pill (lactese or lactose treated milk)