 BackReview Article ScienceAsia 6 (1980): 003-029 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.1980.06.003
BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES
JOHN F. KENNEDYa and CHARLES A. WHITEbSummary: This article describes the principal types of naturally occurring macromolecules under the classification of polysaccharides, proteins, glycoproteins, proteoglycans and nucleic acids. One of the specialised opening features is a composite tabulation of the full structures of the principal monosaccharides, amino acids, and purine and pyrimidine bases which go to make up these macromolecules. Comparisons are drawn between the complexities of the biological structures and the simplicities of man's attempts to simulate them, and readers' attentions are drawn to the vast range of uses and functions of biological macromolecules which arise from the large number of specific primary structures possible. Several examples of the foregoing macromolecular types are given to illustrate the subject, these examples ranging from connective tissue support polymers to enzymes, from plant structural polysaccharides to microbial polymers etc. Considerable emphasis is given to the uses to which the biological macromolecules have been put in isolated and multiple processes and systems. a Research Laboratory for Chemistry of Bioactive Carbohydrates and Proteins, Department of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, P.O. Box 363. Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K. Received 12 December 1979
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