Carbs Review Lesson

​Carbohydrates, shortened to Carbs, are these wonderful little macromolecules that are made up of

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​Carbon

​Hydrogen

​Oxygen

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​Derived from the name itself: Carbo = Carbon and Hydrate = Oxygen and Hydrogen. Specifically the name refers to the ratio in which you can find these elements in Carbs. That ratio being a 1:2:1 ratio.

​As with any macromolecule, there are monomers that act as building blocks for more complex forms.

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​For carbs the monomer is known as monosaccharides = one sugar

Disaccharides = two sugars

​Polysaccharides = many sugars

​While there are multiple different types of sugar molecules, the ones we focus on are the ones that naturally occur in nature, those being the:

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​Hexose sugars (referring to the 6 ring carbon structure)

​Pentose sugars (referring to the 5 ring carbon structure)

​Carbohydrates bond together by a chemical reaction process called

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​Dehydration Reactions which involves the loss of water from a reacting molecule.

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This loss of water results in a bond forming between two or more carbs to form what we know as a

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​Glycosidic Linkage/Bond which is shown in the picture to the right.

​Carbs are a very important part of animal and plant diets due to the large number of functions they serve. For example carbs are involved in:

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​Energy Production: by using glucose as an energy source

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​Energy Storage: by using glycogen or starches to store excess energy

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​Structural Components: by binding in long polysaccharide chains carbs like cellulose can make up the cell walls of plant cells. Another example is chitin, found in insects, crabs and other marine life, even in the cell walls of fungi.

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​In addition to this, they also serve a variety of other functions but I wanted to pay particular attention to these functions