Thursday, March 29, 2007
heeh. heres my new blog! hahah. first time i remember moving. feels so new and fresh. (: hahah. im going to be going for my first ever TUITION LESSON. and yes. its for chinese. i think im really dead-ed for chinese. and if i dont do well, im gonna die. so i have to do well. so i shall go for tuition. and hopefully it helps. OH. in view of that. theres chinese oral on monday. and so far, in all those practises, ive been. terrible. no opinions, and i keep laughing. i guess i shall start reading CHINESE stuff. and speak more chinese. LIANPING YOU MUST HELP ME. hahah. mum just gave me chocolate! she told me i need the energy. [heeh. chocolate contains GLUCOSE! which will be completely oxidized in mitochondria during aerial respiration and result in the synthesis of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which serves as the energy source for cellular activities to be carried out.] lol. cant believe i actually remember that.
im scared to go for tuition. ive never been to tuition before! ahhh. so scary. oh anyway. anyone needs the typed out version of the carbohydrates stuff that mr p gave? i just typed out mine (: go ahead with copying and printing. if i disabled the right click thingy on my blog, then ctrl-c larh okay?
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Carbohydrates are made up of the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. It has a general formula of Cm(H2O)n. Generally, carbohydrates can be divided into three subgroups, namely monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides.
Monosaccharides include glucose, fructose and galactose. Disaccharides include sucrose, maltose and lactose. Polysaccharides include starch, glycogen and cellulose.
Monosaccharides play an important role in living organisms in the provision of energy that is otherwise used to fuel cellular activities. Glucose will be completely oxidized in mitochondria during aerobic respiration and result in the synthesis of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which serves as the energy source for cellular activities to be carried out. In other biochemical pathways, monosaccharides function as the basic unit in which other complex nutrients can be synthesized, example synthesis of proteins and fats from glucose (plant nutrition or photosynthesis)
Disaccharides can serve as an energy storage source such as sucrose which is present in the storage organ, the stem, in sugarcane. Sucrose also functions as the transportation form for movement of carbohydrate synthesized in the leaf to its storage organs which are normally situated away from the leaf, such as the root. Sucrose also plays an important role in allowing plant cells to achieve turgidity as it is too large to pass through the plasma membrane and hence its presence leads to a situation of differences in water potential. Thus water molecules will move into the plant cell by osmosis and this results in plant cells being able to absorb water and eventually achieve the state of turgidity.
Starch and glycogen are common sources of storage carbohydrates found in both plants and animals. The fact that starch and glycogen are insoluble in water and compact in size means that using it as a storage option will not result in disruption of the water potential status of a specific area of space given for storage. Hence starch and glycogen at times are also referred to as storage polysaccharides.
Cellulose on the other hand is referred to as a structural polysaccharide, as due to its layering and structural layout, it offers strength to the plant cell. This is important as plant cells utilize such features to allow for the phenomenon of turgidity to be achieved. Turgidity is important to plants as it allows some plants of the herbaceous type to stand, to allow leaves to spread out its lamina (leaf blade) and very critically, to allow the opening of the stomata by governing the degree of curvature of the pair of guard cells.
Hence, in conclusion, carbohydrate plats a key role in living organisms either by serving as a direct means of evergy source as in aerobic respration, as an energy storage option and lastly to provide structural support in plants.
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heeh. i think i must be mad. Laura, want me to print for you? heehee.
i shall just post this for now. (: may post again later! see you all.
HoldMeInYourArms.
5:14 PM
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