Starch granules: structure and biosynthesis

Abstract

The emphasis of this review is on starch structure and its biosynthesis. Improvements in understanding have been brought about during the last decade through the development of new physicochemical and biological techniques, leading to real scientific progress. All this literature needs to be kept inside the general literature about biopolymers, despite some confusing results or discrepancies arising from the biological variability of starch. However, a coherent picture of starch over all the different structural levels can be presented, in order to obtain some generalizations about its structure. In this review we will focus first on our present understanding of the structures of amylose and amylopectin and their organization within the granule, and we will then give insights on the biosynthetic mechanisms explaining the biogenesis of starch in plants.