English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

what's the difference between monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides

2007-12-19 14:50:54 · 4 answers · asked by confusednsadness 1 in Science & Mathematics Biology

4 answers

There are three classes of carbohydrates: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. The monosaccharides are white, crystalline solids that contain a single aldehyde or ketone functional group. They are subdivided into two classes aldoses and ketoses on the basis of whether they are aldehydes or ketones. They are also classified as a triose, tetrose, pentose, hexose, or heptose on the basis of whether they contain three, four, five, six, or seven carbon atoms.
The structures of many monosaccharides were first determined by Emil Fischer in the 1880s and 1890s and are still written according to a convention he developed. The Fischer projection represents what the molecule would look like if its three-dimensional structure were projected onto a piece of paper. By convention, Fischer projections are written vertically, with the aldehyde or ketone at the top. The -OH group on the second-to-last carbon atom is written on the right side of the skeleton structure for the D isomer and on the left for the L isomer

this is will help u http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/1biochem/carbo5.html

2007-12-20 01:50:04 · answer #1 · answered by Syeda 3 · 2 4

Well, a monosaccharide is the monomer of the macromolecule carbohydrate and when broken down creates the different -saccharides. The monosaccharide is the simpilest of all the monomers and is somtimes called the building block creating simple sugars such as fructose and gluclose. Disaccharides are two monosaccharides bonded together, hence the nickname "building blocks" to create more complex sugars like sucrose, or table sugar. Last, polysaccharides are mulitple monosaccharides bonded together in which in the name describes, poly-many. These create complex compound molecules like cellulose.

2016-05-25 03:05:53 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

A monosaccharide is the simplest sugar, a sugar building block. This is something like glucose, fructose, or galactose.

If you put two monosaccharides together and let them bond, they form a disaccharide, like maltose or sucrose or lactose.

A polysaccharide is basically a chain of monosaccharides bonded together. This is something like cellulose.

2007-12-19 14:55:33 · answer #3 · answered by Sowmya 3 · 21 0

mono=one;a simple sugar that cannot be broken down by hydrolysis. di=two;a carbohydrate composed of two monosaccharides that are linked by a covalent bond. poly=many;a carbohydrate polymer composed of many monosaccharides that are linked covalently into a chain.

2007-12-19 14:58:39 · answer #4 · answered by glenn t 7 · 5 0

fedest.com, questions and answers