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Roger H. Newman, Tony C. Davidson

Crystalline forms and cross-sectional dimensions of cellulose microfibrils in the Florideophyceae (Rhodophyta)

Keywords: 13C NMR, cellulose, Florideophyceae, microfibrils, X-ray diffraction

Solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) were used to characterise the cellulose in six species of Florideophycean algae. NMR identified cellulose I_? as the dominant crystalline form in all species, and was used to estimate the widths of the sheets of cellulose chains. The mean value (±SD) was 3.9±0.4 nm. WAXS was used to estimate the thickness of microfibrils measured normal to the sheets of chains. The mean value (±SD) was 1.9±0.5 nm. Uniformity of these results across the six species supported a generalisation that Florideophycean algae biosynthesise cellulose chains in microfibrils that are narrower than those biosynthesised by Bangiophycean algae.

Botanica Marina, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0006-8055
Volume: 47, 12/2004
Pages: 490 - 495

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