Final answer:
Polysaccharides are the sugars made through plant energy conversion. Plants produce glucose through photosynthesis, which they then polymerize into large molecules such as starch and cellulose, serving as energy storage and structural components, respectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sugars made through plant energy conversion are polysaccharides. During photosynthesis, plants convert sunlight into chemical energy, producing glucose, a monosaccharide. Glucose molecules are then linked together through a series of condensation reactions to form polysaccharides. These large carbohydrate molecules serve as energy storage or structural materials within the plant. Starch is a storage polysaccharide produced by plants to store energy, and cellulose is a structural polysaccharide that forms plant cell walls. Both starch and cellulose are made up of glucose monomers that are linked together in different ways.
As a comparison, disaccharides, like sucrose or lactose, are composed of two monosaccharides. Monosaccharides are the simplest sugars consisting of single sugar units, such as glucose and fructose. On the other hand, oligosaccharides are short chains of monosaccharides containing a few monomer units.