Carbohydrates Macromolecule

This document provides information about carbohydrates as a macromolecule, including their structure, examples, and their role in cellular respiration and cytoanatomy.

Running head: CARBOHYDRATE IN HUMAN BODY 1
Carbohydrates Macromolecule
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Macromolecule
Carbohydrate macromolecule
Carbohydrate examples
A monosaccharide; which is a white crystalline solid that is composed of a single
ketone or aldehyde as the functional group.
A disaccharide; which is comprised of two monosaccharide that are linked either
through dehydration or condensation synthesis (Prashanth & Tharanathan, 2003).
Structure
Monosaccharide
The elements involved in the formation of the monosaccharide are carbon, oxygen
and hydrogen. Monosaccharide has an unbranched linear carbon skeleton that is consist of one
hydroxyl group (OH) and a carbonyl functional group (C=O) on the other remaining carbons. A
simple monosaccharide can be put down as H(CHOH)n(C=O)(CHOH)mH and n+1+m=x.
Therefore the elemental structure of monosaccharide = CxH2xOx (Matsubara et al, 2017).
Disaccharide
Disaccharide molecule consists of both the glycosidic bond between two
monosaccharide molecules and the hydroxyl (OH) as the functional group. The structure of the
disaccharides is similar to that of the monosaccharide only that the two molecules of the
monosaccharide are connected by the glycoside linkage. The resulting molecules are 12- carbons

CARBOHYDRATE IN HUMAN BODY 3
disaccharide formed through condensation where water is eliminated from the functional group
with the help of the enzyme (Liu et al, 2016).
Cellular Respiration
The cellular respiration that extracts energy from carbohydrate is Glycolysis.
Glycolysis involves break down of the glucose molecule to form 2 pyruvate
molecules and release of energy that is stored as NADH and ATP. The energy released during
the breakdown of carbohydrate is used to power body cells and systems. The polysaccharides
which are broken down into simple soluble sugars (monosaccharide), as they are transported
through the circulatory system to be stored, they are absorbed by the cells through a series of
reactions called glycolysis. These cells convert the energy (ATP) in glucose into ADP (Vitko et
al, 2016).
Cytoanatomy
The cell organelles are plasma membrane and Golgi bodies.
Carbohydrates are linked to proteins or lipids to form plasma membrane which is a
fluid mosaic membrane composed of lipid bi-layer with floating carbohydrates and proteins.
Golgi bodies are composed of carbohydrate mucous-rich secretion whereby the
glucose is useful in the synthesis of complex carbohydrate within the Golgi body region (Kauss
& Glaser, 1974).

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Reference
Kauss, H., & Glaser, C. (1974). Carbohydrate‐binding proteins from plant cell walls and their
possible involvement in extension growth. FEBS letters, 45(1-2), 304-307.
Liu, X. C., Zhu, Z. Y., Tang, Y. L., Wang, M. F., Wang, Z., Liu, A. J., & Zhang, Y. M. (2016).
Structural properties of polysaccharides from cultivated fruit bodies and mycelium of
Cordyceps militaris. Carbohydrate polymers, 142, 63-72.
Matsubara, M., Aoki-Kinoshita, K. F., Aoki, N. P., Yamada, I., & Narimatsu, H. (2017).
WURCS 2.0 update to encapsulate ambiguous carbohydrate structures. Journal of
chemical information and modeling, 57(4), 632-637.
Prashanth, K. H., & Tharanathan, R. N. (2003). Studies on graft copolymerization of chitosan
with synthetic monomers. Carbohydrate Polymers, 54(3), 343-351.
Vitko, N. P., Grosser, M. R., Khatri, D., Lance, T. R., & Richardson, A. R. (2016). Expanded
glucose import capability affords Staphylococcus aureus optimized glycolytic flux during
infection. MBio, 7(3), e00296-16.