Definition of "maltose" [malt•ose]

• A white crystalline sugar, C12H22O11, formed during the digestion of starch. Also called malt sugar. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The starch is first converted into a sugar known as maltose, by the action of _malt_, a substance prepared by moistening barley with water, allowing it to germinate, and then drying it."
• "Sure enough, when the researchers inhibited GlgE, the bacteria underwent "suicidal self-poisoning": a sugar called maltose 1-phosphate accumulated to toxic levels that damaged bacterial DNA, causing the death of TB bacteria grown in Petri dishes as well as in infected mice."
• "In some cases, Cutler says, people could even be sensitive to other sugars such as maltose in grains, sucrose or dextrose in fruits."