Polysaccharides Flashcards
What is starch made from?
Many alpha glucose molecules
What is the biological importance of starch?
It is a carbohydrate storage in plants
What is glycogen made of?
Many alpha glucose molecules
What is the biological importance of glycogen?
It is a carbohydrate storage in animals
What is cellulose made from?
Many beta glucose molecules
What is the biological importance of cellulose?
It is in plant cell walls
What are the two polymers within starch?
Long, straight chains of amylose and branched chains of amylopectin
What is amylose made of?
Many alpha glucose molecules with glycosidic bonds between carbon 1 on one molecule and carbon 2 on another, forming an alpha 1,4 glycosidic bond
How does amylose coil up?
Into a helix due to the angle of the glycosidic bond and the structure is held together by hydrogen bonds
Why does iodine solution turn blue-black in starch?
The amylose coils trap iodine molecules, turning it blue black and this can be reversed by unraveling the coil by heating to break the hydrogen bonds
What is the structure of amylopectin?
It has many alpha 1,4 glycosidic bonds and alpha 1,6 glycosidic bonds to form branches, which occur every 25 glucose molecules
What is the structure of glycogen?
It has shorter alpha 1,4 linked glucose chains than amylopectin and many more alpha 1,6 glycosidic bonds so many more branches
Why is glycogen more compact?
So less space is needed than in plants as animals are mobile
What is the solubility of glycogen and starch?
They are both insoluble
Why are starch and glycogen insoluble?
So the water potential is not affected as if there is too much water in a cell, it will burst.