Ryan Moore

30th September 2009

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are important to both humans and plants mainly as a source of easily accessible energy but, they also have a structural function in plants. The most common carbohydrates are sugars, starch, glycogen and cellulose and they only contain the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. When carbohydrates are not being needed they are stored as polysaccharides. In plants this is normally as starch grains which can be found in nearly all parts of the plant. They are outside the cells because they are large molecules. In humans, the carbohydrates are converted into the polysaccharide glycogen for storage. The largest amounts of glycogen are found in the liver and near muscle cells. It is found in the liver because this is where it is formed and near muscle cells since they will need to the glucose the most. Starch is a mixture of two polysaccharides of alpha glucose which are amylose and amylopectin. Amylose contains long unbranched chains of alpha glucose with the glycosidic bonds being at angles which give it a unique structure. It has a coiled structure which means it is good for storage because more can be fitted into a small space. Amylopectin is also a long chain but, unlike amylose, it is a branched chain of alpha glucose. The branches are important and are one of the reasons starch is such a good energy storage material for plants. The side branches allow the enzymes that break down the molecule to get at the glycosidic bonds easily. This results in the quick release of glucose which is used in many important chemical reactions in the plants. Another thing that makes starch good for storage is the fact that it is insoluble in water so id doesnt cause water to enter cells by osmosis which could make them swell or burst. Although starch does enter the body when we consume food, it is broken down into a form that is useful to humans by the enzyme amylase. This digests it to glucose which is either used in a reaction such as respiration or converted into glycogen at the liver. Like plants, animals get energy from glucose but, unlike plants the excess glucose is stored as Figure 1 glycogen. Glycogens structure is very similar to that of amylopectin and it is also a polysaccharide of alpha glucose. Like amylopectin it has 1-4 glycosidic bonds and has branches coming off it. However, as figure 1 shows, the difference is that glycogen has a lot more of these branches and this means that energy can be released even quicker in animals. There are more similarities with starch as glucose is a very compact molecule which makes it good for storage.

Ryan Moore

30th September 2009

Furthermore, glycogen is insoluble in water which like starch, means that it doesnt cause water to enter the cells by osmosis which could make them swell. Another thing that makes glycogen a good store of energy for animals is that it is a very large molecule which means it can store lots of energy. In plants, carbohydrates are mainly transported as sucrose. Sucrose is formed with the condensation reaction (a reaction involving the loss of water) of glucose and fructose. A glycosidic bond is formed between the glucose and fructose and the resulting product sucrose is a disaccharide which can be broken down back into the monosaccharides by the addition of water in a hydrolysis reaction. When a human eats carbohydrates, such as starch, it will be broken down by enzymes into monosaccharides. These will then go through the digestive system until they arrive at the intestines at which point they will be actively transported into the blood and the blood glucose levels will rise. This glucose may then get transported to the liver to form glycogen but may be used before that at in respiration. During this process, insulin, a hormone, is secreted so that the cells can take up the glucose and also helps with the conversion of glucose into the glycogen. The main place where glucose is needed is in the muscle cells and so there are stores of glycogen near to them so that they can get the energy quickly when they need it. Although plants and animals use different molecules to store their energy, the key features of each are similar. The main similarity is that they both store the energy in a molecule that can be quickly broken down when the energy is needed. This molecule is also compact to make good use of the space available. Sources of Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen#In_muscle_and_other_cells Advanced Biology by Michael Roberts, Michael Reiss and Grace Monger CGP AS-Level Biology Revision Guide Pictures: Figure 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glycogen_structure.svg