The red atoms highlight the aldehyde group, and the blue atoms highlight the chirality ( chemistry ) | asymmetric center furthest from the aldehyde ; because this-OH is on the right of the Fischer projection, this is a D sugar.

The assignment of D or L is made according to the orientation of the asymmetric carbon furthest from the carbonyl group: in a standard Fischer projection if the hydroxyl group is on the right the molecule is a D sugar, otherwise it is an L sugar.

The Fischer projection is a systematic way of drawing the skeletal formula of an acyclic monosaccharide so that the handedness of each chiral carbon is well specified.

In the Fischer projection, two mirror-image isomers differ by having the positions of all chiral hydroxyls reversed right-to-left.

In the Fischer projection, one of the two glucose isomers has the hydroxyl at left on C3, and at right on C4 and C5 ; while the other isomer has the reversed pattern.

In the Fischer projection, the '-' and '-' prefixes specifies the configuration at the carbon atom that is second from bottom: '-' if the hydroxyl is on the right side, and '-' if it is on the left side.

A Fischer projection is a simplified way to depict the stereochemistry around a stereocenter.

The Fischer projection is mostly used for linear monosaccharides.

Nonetheless, the Fischer projection is a simple way of depicting multiple sequential stereocenters that does not require or imply any knowledge of actual conformation:

Image: DGlucose Fischer. svgFischer projection of-Glucose

Fischer projection of-glyceraldehyde

This means an aldose can exist in either a form or form of a Fischer projection.

* Fischer projection

* Hermann Emil Fischer ( 1852 – 1919 ), German chemist, 1902 Nobel prizewiner, and inventor of the Fischer projection

Visualizing a 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.

A Fischer projection is used to differentiate between L-and D-molecules.

On a Fischer projection, the penultimate carbon of D sugars are depicted with hydrogen on the left and hydroxide on the right.

In a Fischer projection, all horizontal bonds project toward the viewer, while vertical bonds project away from the viewer.

Therefore, a Fischer projection cannot be rotated by 90 ° or 270 ° in the plane of the page or the screen, as the orientation of bonds relative to one another can change, converting a molecule to its enantiomer.