... 30% of starch, however it is an unbranched linear polymer unlike amylopectin. The monomers are joined in1,4 glycosidic bonds. The chains usually have around 300 alpha glucose molecules and form a stiff left handed single helix shape. Starch is the main carbohydrate food store in plants. It is well suited to this because; it is compact, insoluble so cannot move out of cells, has no osmotic effects, it doesn't react within the cell and it can easily be turned into a sugar by hydrolysing it. Glycogen is the polysaccharide that is used by animals for storing glucose for future use. Like amylopectin, it also consists of a 1,4 linkages and a 1,6 linkages, however they branch far more often. One of the functions of having many branches in the molecule is that it gives a lot more ends for enzymes to work on to hydrolyse the glycogen to form glucose. Thus, ...

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