Tertiary structures polysaccharide chains

Linearity of the polysaccharide primary chains facilitates parallel ordering of the tertiary structures in two (e.g., 0 sheets of cellulose) and three... 

As with polysaccharides, there are two parts to the structural problem, determination of the primary sequence, the order of amino acids along the protein chain, and the shape of the molecule in space, its secondary and tertiary structures. 

Obtaining this information is not easy, and for only relatively few protein molecules are primary and secondary and tertiary Structures all known. But at least it is now known how to solve the problems. The only saving grace in the matter of amino acid sequence is that polypeptide chains are never branched as polysaccharides are there is only a linear sequence to cope with. This isn t to say that many proteins do not consist of several... 

It seems that the kind of linkage is extremely important in determining the conformation of the chain which in turn will be responsible for the secondary and tertiary structure adopted by the polysaccharide. Obviously, the ribbon-like units of chitin can pack readily into dense, rectangular cross-sectioned microfibrils ideal as the skeleton material of cell walls. Therefore, helical conformation, secondary and tertiary structure are dictated by well-defined variations in the main chain chemistry. 

CONFORMATION SECONDARY AND TERTIARY STRUCTURES OE POLYSACCHARIDE CHAINS 161... 

We generally describe the structure of both synthetic and natural polymers in terms of four levels of structure primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. The primary structure describes the precise sequence of the individual atoms that compose the polymer chain. For polymers that have only an average structure, such as proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids, a representative chain structure is often given. 

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