Polysaccharide
Polysaccharides are abundant carbohydrates serving storage and structural roles.
Last updated
Polysaccharides are macromolecules formed by the glycosidic linkage of many monosaccharide units.[1] In food, polysaccharides represent the carbohydrate type found in the greatest quantity.[1] The architecture of these polymers can be linear or can exhibit extensive branching.[2]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Biochemistry, Carbohydrate Chemistry
- Known for
- Most abundant carbohydrates in food; key storage and structural polymers in living organisms
- Examples
- Starch
- glycogen
- galactogen
- cellulose
- chitin
- hemicellulose
- inulin
- arabinoxylans
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Polysaccharides contain more than ten monosaccharide units, whereas oligosaccharides contain three to ten.[3] Structural polysaccharides include hemicellulose and chitin.[2] Starch, glycogen, and galactogen are examples of polysaccharides used for energy storage.[2] The glucose polymer starch contains alpha-linkages and is composed of 15–20% amylose together with 80–85% amylopectin.[4]
In animal and fungal cells, glycogen functions as a reserve of energy for the longer term, second only to adipose tissue.[5] Repeated glucose units connected through beta-linkages form the polymer known as cellulose.[6] Cellulose holds the distinction of being the organic molecule with the greatest abundance on Earth.[7] The exoskeletons of insects are one example of a structural component in many animals that is made of chitin.[8]
Inulin, a fructose-based polysaccharide found in nature, resists complete digestion by human enzymes.[9] A thick, mucus-like polysaccharide layer called a bacterial capsule is frequently produced by pathogenic bacteria.[10]
What the research sources say
The book "Targeting Chitin-containing Organisms" was published by Springer on May 18, 2019.[11] The book "Pseudomonas: Genomics and Molecular Biology" contains chapters covering polysaccharides, biofilms, and other topics.[12] Exopolysaccharides encoded by the pel and psl loci have been found to play a significant role in the formation of biofilms.[13] Transcriptional regulation tightly controls the production of the biosurfactant rhamnolipid.[13]
Research from around 2007 onward has demonstrated that glycosylation of pilin and flagellin proteins is critical for bacterial adhesion and invasion during infection.[13]
References
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Polysaccharides", IUPAC Gold Book, 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "IUPAC Gold Book - Glycans", 2009; Varki, "Essentials of Glycobiology", National Library of Medicine, 2022 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Modulation of bacterial multicellularity via spatio-specific polysaccharide secretion", PLOS Biology, June 2020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pfister, "Formation of starch in plant cells", Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, July 2016, p. 2781–2807 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Anatomy and Physiology", McGraw-Hill, 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bhardwaj, "Biochemistry for Nurses", Pearson Education India (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Biology", Benjamin Cummings, 1996, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Moussian, "Targeting Chitin-containing Organisms", 2019, p. 5–18 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Declaration of Certain Isolated or Synthetic Non-Digestible Carbohydrates as Dietary Fiber on Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels: Guidance for Industry", U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 14 June 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McFadden, "The physical properties of the capsular polysaccharides from Cryptococcus neoformans suggest features for capsule construction", The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2006-01-27, p. 1868–1875 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Open Library record, ISBN 9789811373176 ("Targeting Chitin-containing Organisms"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
- "Pseudomonas: Genomics and Molecular Biology", Caister Academic Press, 2008. facts only, no text reused. horizonpress.com
- Wikipedia, "Polysaccharide" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pseudomonas: Genomics and Molecular Biology", Caister Academic Press, 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Polysaccharide (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Polysaccharide (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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