Amylopectin

Amylopectin together with amylose compose starch, the primary storage polysaccharides of plants. Amylopectin is a polymer of glucose. It differs from amylose and resembles the animal storage polysaccharide, glycogen, in containing 1,6 branches in addition to 1,4 links between glucose units. Amylopectin is less branched, however, than glycogen, having branches approximately every 10-20 residues, versus every 8 residues in glycogen. Amylose, amylopectin, and glycogen all differ from the polysaccharide, cellulose, in containing exclusively 1,4 bonds in contrast to the 1,4 bonds of cellulose.


See also: Polysaccharides, Glycogen