Sugar Structures

Sugar comes in many different forms.

Find out the difference between the chairs and boat structures below, by zooming in on how plants use sugar in different ways.

Use the chairs to build cellulose or starch.

Walking around the lake you’ll find out why you should care.

Click here for an audio explanation:

Sugar Structures

Sugar is the building block for many things in a leaf

In a potato leaf cell: It makes up the cell walls (green) and the starch grains (red).

Sugar in the cell walls is called cellulose.

Here the sugar is used to build a rigid structure.

Cellulose is the most abundant sugar structure in the world.

Cotton and Rayon are two examples of cellulose products.

When sugar is used for structural things, each sugar is linked together in alternating orientations and packed up in rows. This makes it hard to pull the sugars apart from one another.

Sugar in these granules is called starch.

Here the sugar is used for energy storage.

There is a lot of starch in cereals, legumes and root vegetables.

When sugar is used for energy storage, each sugar is linked together in the same orientation and packed in spirals or branching structures. This makes it easier for the cell to break off sugar for energy usage.

Since sugar (glucose) is a 3D object it can bend and twist in all different directions.

Scientists have observed two major configurations of glucose, the chair and the boat.

The chair structure is the most stable.

To link and pack sugar, it must be in the right 3D shape ready to be clicked together, the chair.

Around the pond:

Nature shows us how to design with function and stability in mind.

Chair order for cellulose: top-bottom. bottom-top. top-bottom. bottom-top

Chair order starch: top-bottom. top-bottom. top-bottom. top-bottom

Add branches by connecting a bottom part to the red dot.

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