Chapter 141: Align

Glucose and Cellulose

Cellulose consists of several thousand glucose molecules linked end to end. The chemical links between the individual glucose subunits give each cellulose molecule a flat ribbonlike structure that allows adjacent molecules to band laterally together into microfibrils with lengths ranging from two to seven micrometres.

Cellulose fibrils are synthesized by enzymes floating in the cell membrane and are arranged in a rosette configuration. Each rosette appears capable of "spinning" a microfibril into the cell wall.

During this process, as new glucose subunits are added to the growing end of the fibril, the rosette is pushed around the cell on the surface of the cell membrane, and its cellulose fibril becomes wrapped around the protoplast. Thus, each plant cell can be viewed as making its own cellulose fibril cocoon.

Matrix polysaccharides