Explain how mono-, di- and polysaccharides differ.

1 Answer
Apr 7, 2015

Answer to this question needs to be very long but here is a short story.

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Monosaccharide is a simple sugar consist only of one unit. They serve as building blocks for more complex carbohydrate forms.

For example:

Glucose
Fructose
Galactose
Ribose and Deoxyribose - RNA, DNA
and so on...

Disaccharides are a group of sugars composed of two monosaccharide groups linked together.

For example:

Maltose = Glucose + Glucose
Sucrose = Glucose + Fructose
Lactose = Glucose + Galactose

Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates composed of numerous monosaccharides combined through the loss of water molecules.

For example:

Starch
Amylopectin
Glycogen
...