Lesson 20 – Polysaccharides

Lesson Description

In this lesson, students learn how sugar monomers polymerize into structural and energy storage macromolecules like cellulose and starch. We also investigate the structure of chitin, the structural polysaccharide of fungi and arthropods.

Special thanks to Professor Jaroslav Koča of the Central European Institute of Technology, Czech Republic, for generously contributing the atomic coordinates to the chitin structures used in this lesson!