What Kind of Saccharide Is Glucose?

Glucose is a monosaccharide and an extremely important carbohydrate in biology. It's used as a source of chemical energy by virtually all living cells and is also the primary product of photosynthesis.

  1. Monosaccharides

    • Monosaccharides are the simplest sugars and generally have the chemical formula Cx(H2O)y. The value of x and y are both 6 in the case of glucose, giving it the specific formula C6H12O6.

    Hexoses

    • Glucose is a hexose, which is a monosaccharide with six carbon atoms. The hexoses are further classified into aldohexoses and ketohexoses.

    Aldohexose

    • Glucose is an aldohexose, which is a hexose with the group --CH=0 at one end. This group is known as a carbonyl group.

    Stereoisomers

    • The aldohexoses have 16 possible ways that their atoms can be arranged in three dimensions. Each of these arrangements is known as a stereoisomer of aldohexose.

    Types of Glucose

    • Glucose actually refers to two aldohexose stereoisomers. The form known specifically as dextrorotatory glucose (d-glucose) is used as an energy source by almost all life forms on earth. The mirror image of d-glucose is levorotatory glucose (l-glucose) and is biologically useless on earth.

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