The objective of this article is to illustrate and visualize the structures and concepts of glucose (aldohexose[1]) and fructose (ketohexose[2]) that are difficult to visualize and illustrate by viewing two dimensional structures in textbooks.
The figure to the left contains D-glucose drawn as a Fischer projection structure. When drawing a Fischer projection the most oxidized group, in this case the aldehyde group, is positioned at the top, all horizontal bonds project to the front of the plane of the screen and all vertical bonds project behind the plane of the screen. The structure shown to the right in the Jmol applet is drawn in this same conformation, but the structure gives the appearance of being 3D. The applet shows the glucose molecule circling back on itself, so that carbon #6 (green) circles around to meet the aldehyde carbon, C#1 (orange). Projecting this 3D structure on to a 2D surface gives the Fischer projection structure. In order to observe that the hydroxyl groups on the chiral carbons project to the same sides on the two structures, rotate the Jmol structure upward so that C#1 moves to the back of the screen. When you do that, you will see that the hydroxyl groups on the chiral[3] carbons are on the same sides of the carbon chain as they are in the 2D structure. Compare the structure of the common of D-glucose to that of the Fischer projection structure. Toggle off the spin and rotate the molecule so that the hydroxyl group on C#5 is on the right side of the carbon chain. Now, notice the differences in the orientations of the hydroxyl groups on the chiral carbons in the sawtooth conformation compared to those in the Fischer projection. This comparison shows that the saw-tooth conformation can not be used to make the enantiomeric[4] assignment.
D-glucose in a which positions the aldehyde carbon so that it can react with the oxygen bonded to C#5 to form a hemiacetal[5] A result of this reaction is that C#1 becomes chiral, and two stereoisomers (anomers[6]) are formed. One anomer, α-D-glucopyranose[7] in the right applet below, is shown from the perspective of looking on the edge of the structure. This perspective or the Haworth[8] projection is often shown in text books. The anomeric carbon, C#1 colored orange, is shown on the right side of the structure, and its hydroxyl group is projecting down. Notice that the pyranose ring is not planear and that in the α configuration the hydroxyl group of the anomeric carbon is projecting below the pyranose ring.
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