Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Everything
2
Structural Polysaccharide
(
thing
)
by
piq
Mon Oct 23 2000 at 16:06:02
Structural Polysaccharides
The principal structural molecule in plants is
cellulose
.
50% of all
organic carbon
in the
biosphere
is contained in cellulose
Forms fibrous parts of plant cell wall, becomes inflexible as time passes.
Cellulose is a
polymer
composed of
monomer
s of glucose like starch and glycogen. The difference is that starch and glycogen are composed entirely of
alpha units
, while cellulose consists entirely of
beta units
. This difference bears an effect on the 3d structure, allign parallel forming
crystalline
cellulose
microfibril
s. As a result, cellulose is "immune" to
enzyme
s that normally break down storage polysaccharides.
Chitin
is a mayor component in the
exoskeleton
s of
antropod
s, as it is a tough, modified polysaccharide.
The point of life
enzyme
AC-130H/U Gunship
Chitin
Carbohydrate
exoskeleton
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