Arabinose

Arabinose is an aldopentose — a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms, and including an aldehyde (CHO) functional group. It has chemical formula C₅H₁₀O₅ and a molar mass of 150.13 g/mol.

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Isomerism

  For biosynthetic reasons, saccharides are almost always more abundant in nature as the "D" form, or structurally analogous to D-(+)-glyceraldehyde.^[1] However, L-arabinose is in fact more common than D-arabinose in nature and is found in nature as a component of biopolymers such as hemicellulose and pectin. The L-arabinose operon is a very important operon in molecular biology and bioengineering.

A classic method for the organic synthesis of arabinose from glucose is the Wohl degradation.

References

1. ^ For sugars, the D/L nomenclature does not refer to the molecule's optical rotation properties but to its structural analogy to glyceraldehyde.

See also

• L-arabinose operon
• Deoxyribose
• Lyxose
• Ribose
• Ribulose
• Xylose
• Xylulose