Threose
Encyclopedia
Threose is a four-carbon monosaccharide or carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

 with molecular formula C4H8O4. It has a terminal aldehyde
Aldehyde
An aldehyde is an organic compound containing a formyl group. This functional group, with the structure R-CHO, consists of a carbonyl center bonded to hydrogen and an R group....

 group rather than a ketone
Ketone
In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure RCR', where R and R' can be a variety of atoms and groups of atoms. It features a carbonyl group bonded to two other carbon atoms. Many ketones are known and many are of great importance in industry and in biology...

 in its linear chain, and so is considered part of the aldose
Aldose
An aldose is a monosaccharide that contains only one aldehyde group per molecule. The chemical formula takes the form Cnn. The simplest possible aldose is the diose glycolaldehyde, which only contains two carbon atoms....

 family of monosaccharide
Monosaccharide
Monosaccharides are the most basic units of biologically important carbohydrates. They are the simplest form of sugar and are usually colorless, water-soluble, crystalline solids. Some monosaccharides have a sweet taste. Examples of monosaccharides include glucose , fructose , galactose, xylose...

s. The threose name can be used to refer to both the D- and L-stereoisomers, and more generally to the racemic mixture (D/L-, equal parts D- and L-) as well as to the more generic threose structure (absolute stereochemistry unspecified).

The prefix "threo" which derives from threose (and "erythro" from a corresponding diastereomer
Diastereomer
Diastereomers are stereoisomers that are not enantiomers.Diastereomerism occurs when two or more stereoisomers of a compound have different configurations at one or more of the equivalent stereocenters and are not mirror images of each other.When two diastereoisomers differ from each other at...

 erythrose
Erythrose
Erythrose is a tetrose carbohydrate with chemical formula C4H8O4. It has one aldehyde group and so is part of the aldose family. The natural isomer is D-erythrose....

) offer a useful way to describe general organic structures with adjacent chiral centers, where "the prefixes... designate the relative configuration of the centers". As is depicted in a Fischer projection
Fischer projection
The Fischer projection, devised by Hermann Emil Fischer in 1891, is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional organic molecule by projection. Fischer projections were originally proposed for the depiction of carbohydrates and used by chemists, particularly in organic chemistry and...

 of D-threose, the adjacent substituents will have a syn
SYN
Syn may refer to:*SYN , a band by HALCA *Doctor Syn, a character in novels by Russell Thorndike*Grand Admiral Peccati Syn character in the Star Wars expanded universe*Syn , in Norse mythology...

 orientation in the isomer referred to as "threo", and are anti
Anti
Anti may refer to:* Anti , the ferryman who carried Isis to Set's island in Egyptian mythology* Anti, or Campa, a tribe of South American Indians* ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival, a yearly international live-art festival held in Kuopio, Finland...

in the isomer referred to as "erythro".
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