Research a specific carbohydrate that and its importance in biology. Discuss it\
ID: 501684 • Letter: R
Question
Research a specific carbohydrate that and its importance in biology. Discuss it's structure, whether it is a monosaccharide, disaccharide, or polysaccharide. If it is a monosaccharide, discuss its various isomers including where they are found and their approximate composition (i.e., percentages). If it is a disaccharide or polysaccharide discuss its important linkages as well as where it is found in nature. Also describe which carbohydrate test could be used to detect its presence in solution. Grading Rubric: The following criteria will be evaluated for this assignment. 1. The student's initial post was at least 100 words. 2. The students post contained only minor spelling or grammatical errors 3. The student's post met all of the requirements in the directions 4. The student replied to at least one other students comment with a thoughtful response.Explanation / Answer
In a living body, carbohydrates provides energy. Some of the carbohydrates are readily available to supply energy like glucose and others are meant for reserve carbohydrates like glycogen. Carbohydrates are pentose, hexose or heptose sugars. They also can be monomers or polymers. Some carbohydrates like ribose are even part of genetic material.
We will take an example of glucose. Glucose is hexose sugar having chemical formula of C6H12O6. It is monosaccharide. D-glucose is naturally occurring isomer while L-glucose does not. There are 15 other stereoisomers of D-glucose. Glucose is currency of energy in the cell. Glucose is the most important carbohydrate in the living body. Even metabolic pathway is named as Glycolysis.
Glucose readily dissolves in water and assumes the cyclic form. Benedict’s or Fehling’s Reagent is used to test for glucose. Here glucose is heated with either reagents and color change from blue to orange confirms presence of glucose. As glucose is reducing sugar it reduces reagents.
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