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A cicada emerges from its nymphal exoskeleton; the shed exoskeleton is mostly modified chitin but the wings and much of the adult body are still unsclerotized chitin at this stage. Chitin (C 8 H 13 O 5 N) n (/ ˈ k aɪ t ɪ n / KY-tin) is a long-chain polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose.
Many properties of cellulose depend on its chain length or degree of polymerization, the number of glucose units that make up one polymer molecule. 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 ]
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 ...
Polymer nomenclature is generally based upon the type of monomer residues comprising the polymer. A polymer which contains only a single type of repeat unit is known as a homopolymer, while a polymer containing two or more types of repeat units is known as a copolymer. [22] A terpolymer is a copolymer which contains three types of repeat units ...
Lignin fills the spaces in the cell wall between cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin components, especially in vascular and support tissues: xylem tracheids, vessel elements and sclereid cells. [citation needed] Lignin plays a crucial part in conducting water and aqueous nutrients in plant stems.
Lysozyme, which is found in tears and constitutes part of the body's innate immune system exerts its antibacterial effect by breaking the β-(1,4)-glycosidic bonds in peptidoglycan (see above). Lysozyme is more effective in acting against gram-positive bacteria , in which the peptidoglycan cell wall is exposed, than against gram-negative ...
The simple reactive molecule from which the repeating structural units of a polymer are derived is called a monomer. A polymer can be described in many ways: its degree of polymerisation , molar mass distribution , tacticity , copolymer distribution, the degree of branching , by its end-groups , crosslinks , crystallinity and thermal properties ...
Structure of a teichoic acid repeat unit from Micrococcaceae Structure of the lipoteichoic acid polymer. Teichoic acids (cf. Greek τεῖχος, teīkhos, "wall", to be specific a fortification wall, as opposed to τοῖχος, toīkhos, a regular wall) [1] are bacterial copolymers [2] of glycerol phosphate or ribitol phosphate and carbohydrates linked via phosphodiester bonds.