Diastereomers are stereoisomers not related through a reflection operation. They are not mirror images of each other. These include meso compounds, cis–trans isomers, E-Z isomers, and non-enantiomeric optical isomers. Diastereomers seldom have the same physical properties. In the example shown below, the meso form of tartaric acid forms a diastereomeric pair with both levo- and dextro-tartaric acids, which form an enantiomeric pair.
The - and - labeling of the isomers above is not the same as the d- and l- labeling more commonly seen, explaining why these may appear reversed to those familiar with only the latter naming convention.
A Fischer projection can be used to differentiate between L- and D- molecules Chirality (chemistry). For instance, by definition, in a Fischer projection the penultimate carbon of D-sugars are depicted with hydrogen on the left and hydroxyl on the right. L-sugars will be shown with the hydrogen on the right and the hydroxyl on the left.
The other refers to Optical rotation, when looking at the source of light, the rotation of the plane of polarization may be either to the right (dextrorotary — d-rotary, represented by (+), clockwise), or to the left (levorotary — l-rotary, represented by (−), counter-clockwise) depending on which stereoisomer is dominant. For instance, sucrose and camphor are d-rotary whereas cholesterol is l-rotary.