What is the range of sugar links in polysaccharides?

Study for the SACE Stage 1 Nutrition Exam. Dive into questions designed to test your understanding. Prepare confidently with detailed explanations and structured practice.

Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates that are made up of long chains of monosaccharide units linked together by glycosidic bonds. The defining characteristic of polysaccharides is that they consist of many sugar units.

When considering the range of sugar links in polysaccharides, the correct choice highlights that they typically contain at least 10 monosaccharide units. In fact, many common polysaccharides, such as starch and cellulose, can have hundreds to thousands of monosaccharide units in their structure. The range of 3 to 9 sugars linked would generally classify that structure as an oligosaccharide rather than a polysaccharide, which is why that answer is not appropriate.

Thus, for a compound to be classified as a polysaccharide, it should have a chain of sugar molecules consisting of more than 10. This is reflected in the correct choice, indicating that polysaccharides often exceed this lower threshold and may have substantially more units linked together, supporting their classification as complex carbohydrates.

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