Читать книгу Polysaccharides - Группа авторов - Страница 47

Glucans is of the excessively found in fungal cell wall, which is made of several glucose units. It named due their specific linkages and the carbon atoms that involve in their bonding. On the basis of their function and characteristics, glucan have two different types, alpha (α) glucan and beta (β) glucan. Alpha glucan has amorphous structure, water soluble and act as energy reservoir such as, starch of the plants and algae, glycogen of the fungi and animals. But the fungal α-glucan has microfibrillar structure and insoluble in water. Microfibril formed due to the bonding of several glucan chains with each other through hydrogen bonding. While β-glucan have crystalline structure thus insoluble in water. Plant cellulose is the type of β-glucan and different from that of the fungi which is β (1–3) linked. Glucan combined with chitin and form the structural component of the fungal cell wall. It excessively found in all fungal phyla but absent in Microsporidia [42, 44].