Proteins, Carbohydrates and Lipids

3.1

You should be able to:

• Distinguish between structural, cis-trans, and optical isomers.
  • Cis-trans isomers typically involve a double bond between two carbon atoms, where the carbons share two pairs of electrons.When the remaining two bonds of each of these carbons are to two different atoms or groups of atoms, these can be oriented on the same side or different sides of the double bonded molecule. If the different atoms or group of atoms are on the same side-cis, opposite side-trans
  • Optical isomers occur when a carbon atom has four different atoms or groups of atoms attached to it. This pattern allows for two different ways of making the attachments, each the mirror image of the…