in this article we're gonna highlight the differences between a dehydration synthesis reaction and a hydrolysis reaction so let's start with dehydration synthesis so what does that word tell you dehydration hydration has to be water but dehydration involves the loss of what and think of let's say if you're joggin and it's hot outside you're dehydrated you've lost a lot of water so a dehydration synthesis reaction involves the loss of water now think of the word synthesis you're synthesizing something or you're building something so that's a those are two characteristics of a dehydration synthesis reaction now if we think of the word hydrolysis hydro means water lysis means to split apart so in this reaction we are using water to split apart something so let me give you a good example of a reaction so let's say we have h plus some monomer a and then it's gonna have an OHA OOP next to it and then we're gonna react that with B which will have a hydrogen and a water molecule or rather a hydroxyl group on it too so when these two monomers react they will combine release in water so water is going to leave so once we have the loss of a water molecule the two monomers a and B will join up together and so we're gonna get a larger molecule so we're synthesizing a and B into a bigger molecule a B hydrolysis is the reverse in hydrolysis we're gonna take a big molecule such as the molecule a B and we're gonna break it up into two smaller parts and we're gonna use water to do it so we're gonna add water and that's gonna help us to split apart those two monomers and so we're gonna get what we started with that is the two individual monomers a and B so hydrolysis and dehydration synthesis these two reactions are reverses of each other they are the exact opposite processes of each other in a dehydration synthesis reaction you're taking small molecules and you're building them together to form a large molecule in hydrolysis you're taking a large molecule and you're using water to break it down into smaller molecules so another example would be combined in glucose and fructose two monosaccharides and turn it into a larger molecule called sucrose which is a disaccharide so that's an example of a dehydration synthesis reaction the reverse will be hydrolysis so if we take the disaccharide sucrose and then if we add water to it we can break it down into glucose and fructose now granted you might need an acid catalyst to accelerate this reaction but you'll need water in the net equation to break down sucrose into glucose and fructose so glucose and fructose are monomers when dealing with carbohydrates that are known as monosaccharides and when you take many small molineres to make it into a polymer that's gonna be a dehydration synthesis reaction another example is converting glucose into starch starch is a polymer made up of many glucose monomers so that is a dehydration synthesis reaction now when you take starch add water and break it down to glucose that will be hydrolysis now keep in mind when synthesizing starch from glucose water will be a byproduct as in the case of all dehydration synthesis reactions now another example would be taken many amino acids and synthesizing them to form a polypeptide chain or even a protein with a specific 3d structure so that's another example of a dehydration synthesis reaction or the reverse if we take a protein which is a polymer and using water we can break it down into many amino acid monomers that will be an example of a hydrolysis reaction so now you know the differences between these two reactions the reverse processes of each other so that's it for this video thanks again for watching