Sandbox Reserved 1740

This Sandbox is Reserved from August 30, 2022 through May 31, 2023 for use in the course Biochemistry I taught by Kimberly Lane at the Radford University, Radford, VA, USA. This reservation includes Sandbox Reserved 1730 through Sandbox Reserved 1749.

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Cellulose Synthase

spinqualitylabelsall models Cellulose Synthase (PDB entry 4hg6) Show:Asymmetric Unit Biological Assembly Drag the structure with the mouse to rotate   Export Animated Image   Print3D Function Cellulose synthase has two main jobs. The first of these two being the synthesis or creation of the polysaccharide cellulose and the second job of cellulose synthase is to create the crystalline microfibril structure . Cellulose synthase uses an activated form of glucose, with the sugar attached to a UDP (orange) nucleotide, to build cellulose. Cellulose is one of the main components in the cell wall and is responsible for protecting the cell from unwarranted pathogens that might try and harm the cell . Cellulose is also important in strengthening cell walls and preventing breakage due to physical forces. The overall shape and form of the cell, as well as the containment of water within the cell. Relevance Why is cellulose synthase so important? Cellulose synthase is an enzyme that helps form the structure of cellulose. Cellulose is a polymer that is composed of many other homopolymers . Cellulose has many important jobs within a cell that without cellulose the cell could not function. Things like the formation of the cell wall which is vital to the life of a plant cell are all dependent on the synthesis of cellulose . Cellulose is water insoluble because of the inter and intra hydrogen bonding that occurs within the cell, this is relevant because cellulose is constantly in contact with water within the cell. Structural highlights The primary structure of cellulose sythase is a long chain of glucose units . It is attached through Beta(1,4) linkages which appear to be like a sheet . These features can all be seen in the rotating figure above. Beta linkages form Beta sheets, 6 stranded beta sheets to be exact along with the beta sheets there can be found the 5 alpha helices. These chains form hydrogen bonds with each other forming microfibrils helping to create the overall strength and stability of cellulose . Though much research has been done, the tertiary structure of cellulose synthase has been difficult to find because of complications with things like purification of the active enzyme, and the overall difficulty of crystalizing plant cellulose synthase. In the 3D model that we have displayed is that of a bacterial cellulose synthase. Similar to plants it is in the cell membrane, using UDP (orange)-glucose from the cytoplasm, passing through the cell membrane, and extruding cellulose (purple) outside the cell.