Polysaccharide

Question: How can cellulose be polysaccharide if it only has glucose sugars? I thought the point of being polysaccharide is having different sort of sugars, but cellulose which is considered polysaccharide only has glucose. Explain?

Answer: no, a polysaccharide is not necessarily many DIFFERENT sugars, just many sugars in a long chain. therefore, cellulose IS a polysaccharide =]

Question: What is Polysaccharide made by joining glucose subunits which makes plants and some protists sturby? What is Polysaccharide made by joining glucose subunits which makes plants and some protists sturby?

Answer: CELLULOSE!!

Question: Is the Meningococcal tetravalent polysaccharide vaccine and the Meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine the same? I'm heading off to college now and I have one remaining vaccine that I have to take. The place that I'm getting my vaccines has the "meningococcal polysaccaride vaccine" for meningitis. However, my college requires a "meningococcal tetravalent polysaccharide vaccine". Are those the same vaccine?

Answer: There is only one polysaccaride based meningitis vaccine available in the US, sold under the name Menomune, and it's tetravalent - so yes, these are the same thing.

Question: Whats the general formula for a polysaccharide? I know the formula for a mono, and a di - but what is it for a polysaccharide. I know what it does, and its function, i just simply want the mathematical formula. Thanks a lot Also please please only answer if you definately know the answer, I had a big problem before when somebody guessed the answer incorrectly.

Answer: Wiki says: Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cn(H2O)n-1 where n is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. The general formula can also be represented as (C6H10O5)n where n=40-3000.

Question: what is the smallest number of glucose molecules that can form a polysaccharide? How many times larger is the number of hydrogen atoms than oxygen atoms in a polysaccharide molecule? is it double?

Answer: First: the cutoff from oligosaccharide to polysaccharide is usually considered to be ten monomers. Some sources will list anywhere from 6 to 15 as the transition point; while it is arbitrary, 10 seems to be the most common by far. Second: the basic stoichiometry for carbohydrates is that the number of hydrogens will be TWICE the number of oxygens, as you pointed out. Hope that helps.

Question: What is the main storage polysaccharide of plants? And what are the subunits that combine to form it?

Answer: starch made up of loads of glucose units

Question: What two types of products are released when a polysaccharide such as starch is hydrolyzed? I was thinking that the two products were amylose and amylopectin but they are the two forms that make up the starch. So I am not sure... Also How are these products important for the living cells?

Answer: Eventually, the starch has to be broken down to monosaccharides, which can be metabolized and then used by the cell for important functions (Na/K pump! Err, other things that use ATP!) Not sure what the other product is.

Question: How does H-bonding contribute to how a polysaccharide is used for structure? Beta glucose is involved in this answer as well right?

Answer: When two monosaccharides (e.g glusose) are close to an enzyme, the enzyme helps to initate a dehydration reaction, causing a glycodic linkage to form. Depending on the way this bond is (alpha for down, beta for up) the chain will either be starch or glycogen. Hydrogen bonding may hold some adjacent polysaccharides next to each other, but they are not involved in the actual structual making of the polysaccharide.

Question: How is a polysaccharide formed through dehydration synthesis and what is released? for those gifted people who know how to answer this question lol, I thank thee! 10 points to, well, a sufficient answer

Answer: when a polysaccharide is formed, a water molecule is lost in the process because the OH group of one sugar joins with the H (from an OH group) of another sugar to form a hydrogen bond. this is also called a condensation reaction.

Question: What polysaccharide cannot be used as a source of energy in humans? Explain why? I think it is cellulose, but I do not know why.

Answer: It is cellulose and the reason is because the bonds between the glucose molecules that make it up are beta glycosidic bonds rather than alpha glycosidic as is the case in starches. That small difference in chemical structure makes it indigestible by amylase.

Question: What are two types of products of the hydrolysis of a polysaccharide? i know one is a monosaccharide monomer, but what is the other?

Answer: Your right, one product is a monosaccharide (a simple sugar like glucose, or fructose) the other is a water molecule.

Question: How can I tell if a food is a monosaccharide or a polysaccharide when I look at its molecular structure? I am on a diet restricted to monosaccharides and not all foods are listed in my "what I can and can't eat" guide. I am hoping to be able to check the food's chemical structure on Wikipedia and find out for myself, if possible.

Answer: Most food contain carbohydrates with a combination of both monosaccharides and polysaccharides. It is in fact impossible to avoid food with the particular type of carbohydrates as ultimately the type of carbohydrates our cells take in is a monosaccharide such as glucose.

Question: Biology - What is the difference between a polymer and a polysaccharide? I've searched for the answer to this on the net but I just don't understand the difference between the two of them. Can anybody help me?

Answer: a polymer is a string or collection of monomer. the monomer could be amino acid (which will give you a protein as the polymer), could be a fatty acid (give you fats) or a nucleotide (which will give you a DNA) . polysaccharides on the other hand is a polymer of glucose (an example of polymer of glucose are cellulose and glycogen).

Question: What test can be used to identify the products of hydrolysis of a polysaccharide? What test can be used similarly for disaccharides? Why are these 2 different tests used in each case?? Can anyone help me! I don't really understand the question... a clarification or answer would be amazing thanks ! <3

Answer: Test for Polysaccharide Hydrolysis is the Benedicts's Test - This is a test for reducing sugars. The Starch-Iodine test distinguishes between disaccharides and polysaccharides.

Question: What polysaccharide is found in the cell walls of fungi and the exoskeleton of arthropods?

Answer: chitin

Question: What polysaccharide do arthropods synthesize to form their exoskeleton?

Answer: Chitin, it is a modified polysaccharide made of Beta glucose -chitin is the second most abundant carbohydrate found in fungi and is the man component in an insects exoskeleton