Chitin (C8H13O5N)n is a long-chain polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is probably the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chitin are produced each year in the biosphere. It is a primary component of cell walls in fungi (especially basidiomycetes and filamentous fungi), the exoskeletons of arthropods such as crustaceans and insects, the radulae, cephalopod beaks and gladii of molluscs and in some nematodes and diatoms. The structure of chitin is comparable to cellulose, forming crystalline nanofibrils or whiskers. It is functionally comparable to the protein keratin. Chitin has proved useful for several medicinal, industrial and biotechnological purposes. Chitin is synthesized by integral membrane chitin synthase. Because chitin and chitin synthases are not present in vertebrates and plants, they have been pursued as the target for fungicides, insecticides, and acaricides. Here you can see a recent cryoEM structure of a membrane-integrated glycosyltransferase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (PDB code: 7XS7)

#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #chitin ... #synthase ... #membrane ... #yeast ... #saccharomyces ... #cryoem

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint