Necessary Carbohydrates "About 200 monosaccharides (Carbohydrates) are found in nature, however only eight are found in... the chains of glycoproteins." (source - Harpers Biochemistry 1996) These eight monosaccharides have been identified as necessary in cell-to-cell communication and can be considered the pieces that form the "letters" of the cell-to-cell alphabet. So now that we've discovered how the letters of the alphabet are formed, lets see how cellular "words" are actually made.