A polysaccharide is a polymer built from many linked monosaccharide units. Cellulose provides a structural example. See Biology 2e: polysaccharides.
Products of partial breakdown or modification of starch, comprising a range of chain lengths rather than one molecule of fixed composition.
hemicellulose denotes a group of plant-wall polysaccharides distinct from cellulose. Their association with cellulose can limit access, and complementary degrading enzymes can improve deconstruction.
starch is a plant storage glucan with characteristic branched and less-branched components. ADP-glucose supplies glucose units to important starch-synthesis reactions.
polysaccharide biosynthesis assembles sugar units into a polymer. Activated donors supply units, while the transferases determine linkage, branching and the relation between synthesis and transport.
Cellulose is a polysaccharide of glucose units whose chains form strong assemblies in plant cell walls. It illustrates a structural role for carbohydrates. See Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell: the plant cell wall.
A cellulose microfibril is an organized assembly of cellulose chains. Surface accessibility and chain packing help determine which glycosidic bonds enzymes can attack.
A polysaccharide that forms a porous gel on cooling from solution. In agarose gel electrophoresis, the agarose network provides a size-dependent obstacle to DNA migration in an electric field.
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