Sugars and lipids Flashcards
What are the three main categories of carbohydrates?
Monosaccharides, disaccharides, polysaccharides
What are isomers?
Molecules with the sam echemical formula but differnet bonding
How do optical isomers occur for carbon?
Carbon has four differnet groups attached to it, two possible isomers (have different chemical properties)
What is the name of the bond between carbohydrate monomers?
Glycosidic bond (linkage)
What is the name of the two types of bond of interest? Between which atoms of the molecules does the bond occur?
Alpha 1,4 and Beta 1,4. Alpha they’re aligned directly and happens between hydroxyl groups of C1 and C4. In alpha, all the molecules are on the same side, whcih creates a spiral. In beta, they’re flipped around and creates a straight and rigid strucutres
What types of molecules do both types of glycosidic linkages make?
Alpha: starch, glycogen (energy storage, spiral, branched)
Beta: Structural support (cellulose, straight, always unbranched)
What are oligosaccharides? What are their functions?
Oligosaccharides can have many functions including cell recognition and cell adhesion. oligosaccharide chains are linked to lipids or to compatible amino acid side chains in proteins, by N- or O-glycosidic bonds. (Thank you wikipedia)
What is a common characterisitc of all lipids?
They are insoluble in water
What are the four types of lipids?
Steroids, phospholipids, fatty acids, triglycerides
How are triglicerides formed?
Three fatty acids chained to a glycerol molecule by esther linkages
Why are fatty acids amphipathic?
Hydrophilic carboxyl group plus hydrophobic
hydrocarbon chain
What movment is usually done by the phospohlipids in the membrane? Which one isn’t?
Horizontal movmenet, flip side (up and down) movemnet
What are the mechanisms to change memebrane fluidity and how do they work?
Unsaturated: have double bonds and create kinks, less rigid, increase fluidity
Longer chains: longer chains increase rigidity
