Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are a major source of energy for life and are important strucutral molecules in many organisms. The most simple carbohydrates are monosaccharides. The most frequently occurring of these is glucose and is important in energy metabolism. When glucose is not immediately required it is synthesised into glycogen. This is known as the Glycogen Synthase Reaction and it involves glucose donating a glucosyl residue to the non-reducing end of a glycogen branch.[1]
A carbohydrate is a molecule that is carbon-based and contains many hydroxyl groups. Disaccharides are carbohydrates made up of two monosaccharides which are joined by an O-glycosidic bond. Carbohydrates can increase in size more by further addition of monosaccharides, complex carbohydrates containing more than one molecule are called oligosachharides [2].