Computerized molecular modeling continues to increase in capability and applicability to carbohydrates. This chapter covers nomenclature and conformational aspects of carbohydrates, perhaps of greater use to computational chemists who do not have a strong background in carbohydrates, and its comments on various methods and studies might be of more use to carbohydrate chemists who are inexperienced with computation. Work on the intrinsic variability of glucose, an overall theme, is described. Other areas of the authors' emphasis, including evaluation of hydrogen bonding by the atoms-in-molecules approach, and validation of modeling methods with crystallographic results are also presented.
Keywords: Carbohydrate; Conformation; Disaccharide; Modeling; Molecular mechanics; Puckering; Quantum mechanics.