From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
Branching enzyme is an
enzyme involved in the
synthesis of
glycogen. Glycogen is made of
several
glucose units put together. A
unit of glycogen is made of 12
glucose molecules, and at the
twelfth molecule, a new "unit" is
branched off from the previous
one, consisting of 12 more glucose
molecules. Glucose is linked to
other individual glucoses by alpha
1, 4 linkages. The placement of
one glucose to another is
catalyzed by the enzyme
glycogen synthase. At a
branching point, though, the
linkages are not alpha 1, 4 they
are alpha 1, 6, and therefore
another enzyme is needed for the
addition of an entire glucose
unit, and this enzyme is branching
enzyme. Branching enzyme attaches
a string of seven glucose residues
to the sixth carbon of a glucose
molecule, usually in an interior
location.
