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Chitin has been proposed for use in building structures, tools, and other solid objects from a composite material, combining chitin with Martian regolith. [39] To build this, the biopolymers in the chitin are suggested as the binder for the regolith aggregate to form a concrete-like composite material. The authors believe that waste materials ...
Chitin-glucan complex (CGC) is a copolymer (polysaccharide) that makes up fungal cell walls, consisting of covalently-bonded chitin and branched 1,3/1,6-ß-D-glucan. CGCs are alkaline - insoluble . Different species of fungi have different structural compositions of chitin and β-glucan making up the CGCs in their cell walls. [ 1 ]
As chitin is a component of the cell walls of fungi and exoskeletal elements of some animals (including mollusks and arthropods), chitinases are generally found in organisms that either need to reshape their own chitin [2] or dissolve and digest the chitin of fungi or animals.
These ubiquitous and cosmopolitan organisms are responsible for decomposition of refractory materials, such as pollen, cellulose, chitin, and keratin. [7] [4] There are also chytrids that live and grow on pollen by attaching threadlike structures, called rhizoids, onto the pollen grains. [34]
The fungal cell wall is made of a chitin-glucan complex; while glucans are also found in plants and chitin in the exoskeleton of arthropods, [36] fungi are the only organisms that combine these two structural molecules in their cell wall. Unlike those of plants and oomycetes, fungal cell walls do not contain cellulose.
Typical fungal cell wall structure. Zygomycetes exhibit a special structure of cell wall. Most fungi have chitin as structural polysaccharide, while zygomycetes synthesize chitosan, the deacetylated homopolymer of chitin. Chitin is built of β-1,4 bonded N-acetyl glucosamine. Fungal hyphae grow at the tip.
In some organisms the mineral content may exceed 95%. The role of the chitin and proteins in such structures is more than just holding the crystals together; the crystal structure itself is so affected as to prevent the propagation of cracks under stress, leading to remarkable strength. [10]
N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (EC 3.2.1.30; EC 3.2.1.52) is a mesophilic hydrolase that specifically hydrolyzes N-acetyl-glucosides. The enzyme is found across a wide variety of marine and terrestrial creatures with the primary function of breaking down oligosaccharides in the presence of water.