Dicentra Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 (edited)  Yes, I know - I teach the stuff. 🙂 But my degree is organic chem, not biochem, and so I'm always wanting to make absolutely, doubly sure that I'm correct on things. And I'm 99% sure that I'm correct on this and the author is wrong but I thought I'd check with the Hive as I know there are some biochem folks here. The author says the following structure represents trehalose: I say it's not trehalose. In fact, I'm not sure what it is - not a common disaccharde, that's for sure. If it isn't trehalose (which I'm almost positive it's not), does anyone know what it is? I say it's an alpha-D-glucose molecule on the non-reducing end and an alpha-D-galactose molecule on the reducing end connected by an alpha-1,4-glycosidic bond - which is NOT trehalose. It's awfully close to maltose but the hydroxy on the 4' carbon of the right hand monosaccharide is "up" and not "down" (hence galactose, not glucose). Truthfully, I don't really need to know what it is but it's bugging me. 🙂 I've even tried googling the systematic name (which I think is α-D-Glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-α-D-galactopyranose) but no luck. Any biochem folks out there? Edited December 6, 2019 by Dicentra Fixed the systematic name Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 I am not a biochemist. Is this where the diagram comes from? It's what Google image search pulled up. http://dept.harpercollege.edu/chemistry/chm/100/dgodambe/thedisk/carbo/ypostlab.htm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicentra Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 1 minute ago, maize said: I am not a biochemist. Is this where the diagram comes from? It's what Google image search pulled up. http://dept.harpercollege.edu/chemistry/chm/100/dgodambe/thedisk/carbo/ypostlab.htm Yes. 🙂 I'm using the virtual lab as part of my course (and it's a great resource!) but I don't think the author has accurately named that disaccharide. It's possible that he has, though, and I'm wrong which is why I thought I'd check. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 I'm not a biochemist either. But I found this structure labeled trehalose that to my amateur eye looks the same as yours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicentra Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 2 minutes ago, wendyroo said: I'm not a biochemist either. But I found this structure labeled trehalose that to my amateur eye looks the same as yours. It's close but not quite the same as the one I posted. 🙂 I think that one IS trehalose. I think the author of the one I posted meant to switch the two groups on the top of the right-hand part of the structure. Can you see how those two parts of that section of the molecule on this pic are switched from the structure I posted? That little difference makes all the difference. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicentra Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 Can I just say that I LOVE that folks who aren't biochemists are spending part of their Friday evening helping me to solve a biochemistry mystery? 😄 That's what makes this board so awesomely awesome. 😉 🙂 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 4 hours ago, Dicentra said: Can I just say that I LOVE that folks who aren't biochemists are spending part of their Friday evening helping me to solve a biochemistry mystery? 😄 That's what makes this board so awesomely awesome. 😉 🙂 And I love the rabbit trail investigations that discussions here sends me on. Fun fact I learned from Wikipedia: "Trehalose is the major carbohydrate energy storage molecule used by insects for flight." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 There do appear to be three possible isomers of trehalose, though I think only the first is common in nature: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chemical-structure-of-trehalose-isomers_fig1_282949317 I do suspect that the figure you referenced was mis-drawn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicentra Posted December 7, 2019 Author Share Posted December 7, 2019 17 hours ago, maize said: And I love the rabbit trail investigations that discussions here sends me on. Fun fact I learned from Wikipedia: "Trehalose is the major carbohydrate energy storage molecule used by insects for flight." And it's used in the process of cryptobiosis! I love science so much. 🙂 16 hours ago, maize said: There do appear to be three possible isomers of trehalose, though I think only the first is common in nature: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chemical-structure-of-trehalose-isomers_fig1_282949317 I do suspect that the figure you referenced was mis-drawn. Yup! But all forms of trehalose are made of two glucose molecules whereas the structure I referenced definitely has a galactose molecule in there. I suspect we're both correct in thinking it was mis-drawn. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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