Polysaccharide in Biological Definition

Lichen

... from fungal metabolites, for example crustose lichens sometimes have a polysaccharide layer in the cortex. Although each lichen thallus generally appears ... pulchella gelatinous lichens, in which the cyanobacteria produce a polysaccharide that absorbs and retains water. External links University of ...

Antigen

... An antigen is any molecule that is recognized by antibodies . Usually, an antigen is a protein or a polysaccharide , but it can be any type of molecule, even small molecules if coupled to a large carrier ( haptens ). There are several kinds of antigens: ...

Cellulose

... Cellulose ( C 6 H 10 O 5 ) n is a long-chain polymer polysaccharide carbohydrate , of beta-glucose . It forms the primary structural component of plants and is not digestible by humans . History and ...

Glycome

... is the collective identity of the entirety of carbohydrates in a cell. In those definitions, the word sugar , the word glycan and the word polysaccharide can be meaningfully substituted for carbohydrate. Ajit Varki, professor of medicine and cell and molecular biology, and director of the ...

Immune system

... features displayed only by pathogens. The MBL pathway of the complement system , for instance, recognizes mannose sugars, which appear only in the polysaccharide coats of bacterium. The most interesting mechanisms of discrimination, however, are not hard-wired --- rather, they involve the immune system ...

Starch

... glucose units joined to one another head-to-tail forming alpha-1,4 linkages. The overall structure of amylopectine is not, however, simply a linear polysaccharide chain, since occasionally, two glucose units are joined to one in an alpha-1,6 linkage, forming a branch point. Structurally, the starch forms ...