Chapter 4: Carbohydrate Structure and Function Flashcards
What is the basic structural unit of a carbohydrate?
monosaccharide
What is the general formula for monosaccharides?
Cn(H2O)n
What is the general formula for complex sugars?
Cn(H2O)m
What is the simplest monosaccharide called and how many carbons does it have?
triose; 3 carbon atoms
What are carbohydrates with four, five, and six carbon atoms?
tetroses, pentoses, and hexoses
Carbohydrates that contain an aldehyde group as their most oxidized functional group are called ____________ and those with a ketone group as their most oxidized functional group are called ____________.
aldoses; ketoses
What is a 6-carbon sugar with an aldehyde called?
aldhexose
What is a 5-carbon sugar with a ketone called?
ketopentose
The basic structure of a monosaccharide is illustrated by the simple sugar ________________, which is an aldose. Draw this structure.
glyceraldehyde
How is a carbon atom in a monosaccharide numbered?
The carbonyl carbon is the most oxidized, and therefore will always have the lowest possible number
In an aldose, the aldehyde carbon will always be carbon number ____. The aldehyde carbon can participate in ________________ linkages; sugars acting as substituents via this linkage are called ____________ residues.
one; glycosidic; glycosyl
The simplest ketone sugar is ________________. Draw this structure.
dihydroxyacetone
In dihydroxyacetone, the ____________ carbon is the most oxidized. In this case, the lowest number it will be assigned is carbon number ____. This is true for most ketoses on the MCAT.
carbonyl; two
Ketoses can also participate in glycosidic bonds at the ________ carbon (#2).
carbonyl
On every monosaccharide, every carbon other than the carbonyl carbon will carry a ____________ group.
hydroxyl
Draw D-fructose
Draw D-glucose
Draw D-galactose
Draw D-mannose
Optical isomers, also called ________________, are compounds that have the same chemical formula; these molecules differ from one another only in terms of spatial arrangement of their component atoms.
stereoisomers
A special type of isomerism exists between stereoisomers that are nonidentical, nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other. These are ____________.
enantiomers
A chiral carbon is one that has ____ different groups attached to it.
chiral
What characterizes an enantiomer?
- Contains chiral carbons
- No internal planes of symmetry
While organic chemists use R and S to denote absolute configuration, biochemists use what?
D and L