Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Structure of a plant cell. Plant cells are the cells present in green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae.Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids with the capability to perform photosynthesis and store starch, a large vacuole that regulates turgor pressure, the absence of flagella or ...
Cellulose from wood pulp has typical chain lengths between 300 and 1700 units; cotton and other plant fibers as well as bacterial cellulose have chain lengths ranging from 800 to 10,000 units. [6] Molecules with very small chain length resulting from the breakdown of cellulose are known as cellodextrins ; in contrast to long-chain cellulose ...
Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen, cellulose and starches. To use this stored chemical energy, an organism's cells metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration.
Glycogen is found in the form of granules in the cytosol/cytoplasm in many cell types, and plays an important role in the glucose cycle. Glycogen forms an energy reserve that can be quickly mobilized to meet a sudden need for glucose, but one that is less compact than the energy reserves of triglycerides . As such it is also found as storage ...
In many animals, including humans, this storage form is glycogen, especially in liver and muscle cells. In plants, starch is used for the same purpose. The most abundant carbohydrate, cellulose, is a structural component of the cell wall of plants and many forms of algae. Ribose is a component of RNA. Deoxyribose is a component of DNA.
In contrast, each polymer of cellulose comprises 7,000–15,000 glucose molecules. [5] In addition, hemicelluloses may be branched polymers, while cellulose is unbranched. Hemicelluloses are embedded in the cell walls of plants, sometimes in chains that form a 'ground' – they bind with pectin to cellulose to form a network of cross-linked fibres.
After cellulose, lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer and is one of the primary structural components of most plants. It contains subunits derived from p -coumaryl alcohol , coniferyl alcohol , and sinapyl alcohol , [ 15 ] and is unusual among biomolecules in that it is racemic .
Cellulose is used in the cell walls of plants and other organisms and is said to be the most abundant organic molecule on Earth. [6] It has many uses such as a significant role in the paper and textile industries and is used as a feedstock for the production of rayon (via the viscose process), cellulose acetate, celluloid, and nitrocellulose.