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Lactose is a disaccharide found in animal milk. It consists of a molecule of D-galactose and a molecule of D-glucose bonded by beta-1-4 glycosidic linkage.. A carbohydrate (/ ˌ k ɑːr b oʊ ˈ h aɪ d r eɪ t /) is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula C m ...
Generally, the carbohydrate part(s) play an integral role in the function of a glycoconjugate; prominent examples of this are neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and blood proteins where fine details in the carbohydrate structure determine cell binding (or not) or lifetime in circulation.
Carbohydrate metabolism is the whole of the biochemical processes responsible for the metabolic formation, breakdown, and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms. Carbohydrates are central to many essential metabolic pathways . [ 1 ]
Glycolipid. Glycolipids are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a glycosidic (covalent) bond. [1] Their role is to maintain the stability of the cell membrane and to facilitate cellular recognition, which is crucial to the immune response and in the connections that allow cells to connect to one another to form tissues. [2]
Carbohydrate–protein interactions are the intermolecular and intramolecular interactions between protein and carbohydrate moieties. These interactions form the basis of specific recognition of carbohydrates by lectins. Carbohydrates are important biopolymers and have a variety of functions. Often carbohydrates serve a function as a ...
Reducing disaccharides like lactose and maltose have only one of their two anomeric carbons involved in the glycosidic bond, while the other is free and can convert to an open-chain form with an aldehyde group. The aldehyde functional group allows the sugar to act as a reducing agent, for example, in the Tollens' test or Benedict's test.
Lectins, or proteins that bind carbohydrates, can recognize specific oligosaccharides and provide useful information for cell recognition based on oligosaccharide binding. [citation needed] An important example of oligosaccharide cell recognition is the role of glycolipids in determining blood types.
Carbohydrate synthesis is a sub-field of organic chemistry concerned with generating complex carbohydrate structures from simple units (monosaccharides). The generation of carbohydrate structures usually involves linking monosaccharides or oligosaccharides through glycosidic bonds, a process called glycosylation .