BIOL 3600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Ketose, Aldose, Dihydroxyacetone
25 Apr 2020
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#2 carbohydrates which have several biological roles all have the structure (c-h2o)n. Defines carbohydrates and talks about their roles. Defined by their structure: c-h2o structure or are a derivative of a molecule that had that structure at one time. Animal cells don"t have cell walls, they have cell walls that involve carbohydrates (they are membranes made from lipids), but carbohydrates still play some functional roles. They are in the background of nucleic acids, so they are a part of that structure. Information some carbohydrates are involved in information. Carbohydrates can be important in cell-cell information (cells contacting other cells) It has the structure (c-h2o)n, where n <= 3. This is where the name comes from as well, carbo from carbon and hydrate from h2o. Carbohydrate comes from: carbon + water together n-times. In a carbohydrate, you have as many oxygen atoms as you have of carbon atoms, and twice that number of hydrogen atoms.
