Technical Information
Study Aid
The Monosaccharide Browser can be used as a study aid in various ways.
- Make a random monosaccharide by clicking on the controls with the mouse but cover the name with your hand - practice naming the sugar before you reveal the correct name.
- Pick the name of a monosacharide and build it by selecting the correct type of sugar and by clicking on the chiral carbon atoms.
- Pick two monosaccharides from a metabolic pathway, select the name of the first sugar and then work out which structural changes you need to make to convert it into the second sugar. (E.g. D-Glucose to D-Galactose, D-Glucose to D-Fructose etc.)
- Look at the cyclic structures of monosaccharides in your text book and use the Monosaccharide browser to build the straight chain form.
These activities could be more effective with a study partner.
Space Filling Fisher Projections
The images in the browser are Space Filling Fischer projections. The atoms are represented as spheres but the molecule has been flattened out as for a stick type Fischer projection. Side atoms are shown slightly forward to remind the viewer of the correct chirality.
The animation illustrates the Fischer projection using D-Glyceraldehyde.
A proper space filling model rotates.
Squashes Flat.
Fades to reveal stick Fischer projection.
