Chitin: Complex Polysaccharide — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2024Plant cell walls are made of cellulose. Paper made from plant pulp and cotton fibre is cellulosic. There are more complex polysaccharides in nature. They have as building blocks, amino-sugars and chemically modified sugars (e.g., glucosamine, N-acetyl galactosamine, etc.). Exoskeletons of arthropods, for example, have a complex polysaccharide called chitin. These complex polysaccharides are mostly homopolymers.
Chitin is a complex polysaccharide made of amino-sugars (like N-acetyl glucosamine) that forms the exoskeleton of arthropods. Unlike cellulose which is a simple homopolymer of glucose, chitin is a modified sugar polymer with nitrogen-containing groups. Students often confuse chitin with cellulose or forget that chitin contains amino-sugars rather than regular glucose units. Remember: chitin = amino-sugar polymer + arthropod exoskeletons, while cellulose = glucose polymer + plant cell walls. NTA tests this distinction because it's crucial for understanding structural diversity in biomolecules and connecting chemistry to organismal function.
Which of the following is not a complex polysaccharide?
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