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Monosaccharides - Common Structures definitions

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  • Monosaccharide
    Simple sugar unit that cannot be hydrolyzed further; serves as a building block for more complex carbohydrates.
  • Pentose
    Five-carbon sugar commonly found in biological systems, essential for nucleic acid structure.
  • Hexose
    Six-carbon sugar, with many structural variations, frequently encountered in metabolism.
  • D-Sugar
    Stereoisomer of a sugar where the hydroxyl group on the last chiral carbon is on the right in Fischer projection; predominant in biology.
  • Ribose
    Five-carbon sugar with all hydroxyl groups on the right; forms the backbone of RNA and DNA.
  • Glucose
    Six-carbon aldohexose with a characteristic arrangement of hydroxyl groups, central to energy metabolism.
  • Mannose
    C2 epimer of glucose, differing by the orientation of the hydroxyl group on the second carbon.
  • Galactose
    C4 epimer of glucose, with the fourth carbon's hydroxyl group orientation switched.
  • Fructose
    Six-carbon ketose, structurally similar to glucose but with a ketone group at the second carbon.
  • Epimer
    Stereoisomer differing from another sugar by the configuration at only one specific carbon atom.
  • Ketose
    Sugar containing a ketone functional group, typically at the second carbon.
  • Aldohexose
    Six-carbon sugar with an aldehyde group at the first carbon; includes glucose and its epimers.
  • Fischer Projection
    Two-dimensional representation of a molecule's stereochemistry, commonly used for sugars.