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NCERT Exemplar · Q23

Q.Name the linkage connecting monosaccharide units in polysaccharides.

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Polysaccharides are built from monosaccharide units joined by glycosidic linkages — specifically, the bond is an O-glycosidic linkage formed between the anomeric carbon of one sugar and a hydroxyl group of another, with the configuration (α\alpha or β\beta) and position (e.g., 1→4, 1→6) determining the polysaccharide's structure and function.

The key to naming this linkage lies in understanding how monosaccharides connect. Each monosaccharide has a reactive anomeric carbon (the carbonyl carbon that becomes chiral upon cyclization). When two monosaccharides join, a water molecule is eliminated — a condensation reaction — between the anomeric carbon of one sugar and a hydroxyl group of another. The resulting bond is an ether linkage, but in carbohydrate chemistry it has a specific name.

  1. The bond is called a glycosidic linkage. More precisely, it is an O-glycosidic linkage because oxygen is the atom bridging the two sugar units. (If nitrogen or sulfur were involved, you'd have N- or S-glycosidic linkages, but those are less common in natural polysaccharides.)

  2. Two details matter for naming: the configuration at the anomeric carbon (α\alpha or β\beta) and the carbon numbers involved. For example, in starch, glucose units are linked by α\alpha-(1→4) glycosidic bonds; in cellulose, they are β\beta-(1→4) glycosidic bonds. The "1→4" tells you that carbon-1 of the first sugar is bonded to carbon-4 of the next. …

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