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Starch (a polymer of glucose) is used as a storage polysaccharide in plants, being found in the form of both amylose and the branched amylopectin. In animals, the structurally similar glucose polymer is the more densely branched glycogen, sometimes called "animal starch". Glycogen's properties allow it to be metabolized more quickly, which ...
α(1→4)-glycosidic linkages in the glycogen oligomer α(1→4)-glycosidic and α(1→6)-glycosidic linkages in the glycogen oligomer. Glycogen is a branched biopolymer consisting of linear chains of glucose residues with an average chain length of approximately 8–12 glucose units and 2,000-60,000 residues per one molecule of glycogen.
Glucose for metabolism is stored as a polymer, in plants mainly as amylose and amylopectin, and in animals as glycogen. Glucose circulates in the blood of animals as blood sugar. [5] [7] The naturally occurring form is d-glucose, while its stereoisomer l-glucose is produced synthetically in comparatively small amounts and is less biologically ...
All polymers are made of repetitive units called monomers. Biopolymers often have a well-defined structure, though this is not a defining characteristic (example: lignocellulose): The exact chemical composition and the sequence in which these units are arranged is called the primary structure, in the case of proteins.
DNA consists of two long polymers of monomer units called nucleotides, with backbones made of sugars and phosphate groups joined by ester bonds. These two strands are oriented in opposite directions to each other and are, therefore, antiparallel .
Starch, consisting of two different polymers of glucose, is a readily degradable form of chemical energy stored by cells, and can be converted to other types of energy. [66] Another polymer of glucose is cellulose, which is a linear chain composed of several hundred or thousand glucose units.
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. Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chitin are produced each year in the biosphere. [1]
DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides. [6] [7] The structure of DNA is dynamic along its length, being capable of coiling into tight loops and other shapes. [8] In all species it is composed of two helical chains, bound to each other by hydrogen bonds.