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Synthesis of Chitin Microfibrils in Vitro

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Cellulose and Other Natural Polymer Systems

Abstract

Chitin is one of the most abundant organic compounds on earth. It is present in both animals and fungi, and characteristically it is absent in plants. In nature, the most abundant crystalline form of the polymer is α-chitin, which occurs in the form of microfibrils. Microfibrils have been observed by electron microscopy of fungal cell walls by use of different techniques: shadow-casting, heavy-metal replicas, negative staining, and oblique and tangential sections. In the cell walls of fungi, chitin microfibrils constitute the skeleton responsible for their rigidity (for a review, see Ruiz-Herrera, 1978).

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  1. Instituto de Investigacion en Biologia Experimental, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad de Guanajuato, Apartado Postal N’187, Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico

    José Ruiz-Herrera

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  1. José Ruiz-Herrera
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  1. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    R. Malcolm Brown Jr.

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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York

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Ruiz-Herrera, J. (1982). Synthesis of Chitin Microfibrils in Vitro . In: Brown, R.M. (eds) Cellulose and Other Natural Polymer Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1116-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1116-4_11

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