glucan, n. Biochem.
(ˈgluːkæn)
[f. gluco- + -an.]
A polysaccharide consisting entirely or chiefly of glucose residues, such as cellulose and starch; = glucosan n. b.
| 1943 Barry & Dillon in Proc. R. Irish Acad. XLIX. B 177 In 1894 Salkowski isolated from yeast a polysaccharide which he called ‘yeast cellulose’... Zechmeister and Tóth..refer to the substance as ‘yeast polyose’. In this paper it will be called yeast glucan—a more definite term. 1950 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. II. 1944 Barry and Dillon..deduced a chain-length of 28 glucose radicals for the yeast glucan. 1978 Sci. Amer. Jan. 89 Glucosyltransferase..polymerizes the glucose into a long polysaccharide called a glucan. 1986 M. Kogut tr. Schlegel's Gen. Microbiol. xiv. 412 Plant starch is composed of two glucans: amylose and amylopectin. |