Question #48621
1 Answer
Feb 19, 2016
The following flowchart shows the various enzymes that go into breaking up a starch molecule.
Salivary amylase's substrate is starch, which is a long chain of glucose molecules. The amylase splits the starch into disaccharides, which are when just two sugar monomers are attached to one another. (Sometimes trisaccharides are formed, too.)
Each disaccharide can be split into its two sugars, either glucose or isomers of glucose with specific enzymes.
Maltase, for example, converts maltose into two glucose molecules. Sucrase splits a sucrose molecule into one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule.
