Gourt Home::Gourt :: Glycosidic bond
In chemistry, a glycosidic bond is a certain type of chemical bond that joins a sugar molecule to another molecule. Specifically, a glycosidic bond is formed between the hemiacetal group of a saccharide (or a molecule derived from a saccharide) and the hydroxyl group of an alcohol. A substance containing a glycosidic bond is a glycoside.
Chemistry
The anomeric carbon of saccharides is very reactive, and glycosidic bonds form readily in the presence of acid. This is a condensation reaction as one molecule of water is released. Glycosidic bonds are fairly stable; they can be broken chemically by strong aqueous acids.
The molecule resulting from formation of a glycosidic bond is an example of an acetal.
Saccharides in aqueous solution can exist in linear (rare) or cyclic form (more common), and these forms constantly change into each other. Only the cyclic forms have an anomeric carbon and can form a glycosidic bond; once the bond has formed, the saccharide unit can no longer attain the linear form.
Polysaccharides
A glycosidic bond can join two monosaccharide molecules to form a disaccharide, as for instance in the linkage of glucose and fructose to create sucrose. More complicated polysaccharides such as starch, glycogen, cellulose or chitin consist of numerous monosaccharide units joined by glycosidic bonds.
While the cyclic structures of monosaccharide units are fairly rigid, the glycosidic bonds confer flexibility to polosaccharide molecules.
Glycosidic bonds join monosaccharides to form polysaccharides, just like peptide bonds join amino acids to form proteins.
S- and N- and O-glycosidic bonds
In analogy, one also considers S-glycosidic bonds, where the anomeric carbon of a sugar is bound to some other group via a sulfur (rather than an oxygen) atom, and N-glycosidic bonds, where the anomeric carbon is bond to some other group via a nitrogen atom. The glycosidic bonds discussed earlier are often called O-glycosidic bonds to distinguish them from S- and N-glycosidic bonds. Substances containing N-glycosidic bonds are also known as glycosylamines; the term "N-glycoside" is considered a misnomer by IUPAC and is discouraged.
Examples from biochemistry
Important examples in biochemistry include DNA (or RNA), where deoxyribose (or ribose) sugar units are joined to nucleobases via N-glycosidic bonds. Organisms also often form glycoproteins by attaching sugars to proteins via O-glycosidic or N-glycosidic bonds in a process known as glycosylation. Animals (and pharmacists) often join substances to glucuronic acid via glycosidic bonds in order to increase their water solubility; this is known as glucuronidation. Many other glycosides have important physiological functions.
α- and β-glycosidic bonds
In general, one distinguishes between α- and β-glycosidic bonds, depending on whether the original hydroxyl group of the participating anomeric carbon is in the α or β configuration. In the standard way of drawing sugars, an α-glycosidic bond of a D-sugar emanates below the plane of the sugar, and a β-glycosidic bond emanates above that plane. (The figure above shows methyl α-D-glucoside.)
Enzymes
Enzymes that form or break O- or N-glycosidic bonds are called glycosylases; enzymes that form or break O-glycosidic bonds are called glycosidases. Glycosylases typically can act either on α- or on β-glycosidic bonds, but not on both.
Before monosaccharide units are incorporated in growing polysaccharide or glycoprotein chains in living organisms, they are typically first "activated" by being joined via a glycosidic bond to the phosphate group of a nucleotide such as UDP. Then enzymes known as glycosyltransferases transfer the sugar unit from the UDP-sugar to the growing polysaccharide chain.
External links
- Definition of glycosides, from the IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, the "Gold Book"
References
- Varki A et al. Essentials of Glycobiology. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1999. Searchable online version
"Glycosidic bond"