Carbohydrates Flashcards
____________ are the most abundant biomolecule on earth.
Carbohydrates
Which biomolecule is often abbreviated to ‘CHO’?
Carbohydrate
Name two carbohydrates that are staples of the human diet.
Sugar and starch
___________ of carbohydrates is the central energy-yielding pathway in most non-photosynthetic cells.
Oxidation
Which type of carbohydrates are found in the cell coats of animals?
Insoluble
Name two classes of simple sugars.
Aldehyde sugars (aldoses) and ketone sugars (ketoses)
How many R-groups does an aldose have?
One
How many R-groups does a ketose have?
Two
Define ‘stereoisomers’.
Molecules that are non-superimposable, mirror images of each other
Glyceraldehyde has a single _______ carbon atom.
Asymmetric
Name the stereoisomers of glyceraldehyde.
D- and L-glyceraldehyde
What do ‘D and L’ refer to, in the context of stereoisomers?
D and L refer to the configuration of the asymmetric carbon atom, furthest from the aldehyde or ketone group
L-sugars rotate polarised light to the _____.
Left
D-sugars rotate polarised light to the _____.
Right
True or false: most hexose sugars are found naturally in the D-sugar form.
True
Name a sugar that naturally occurs in the L-sugar form.
L-arabinose