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Glucose, not cellobiose, is the repeating unit of cellulose and why that is important

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Abstract

Despite nomenclature conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the repeating unit of cellulose is often said to be cellobiose instead of glucose. This review covers arguments regarding the repeating unit in cellulose molecules and crystals based on biosynthesis, shape, crystallographic symmetry, and linkage position. It is concluded that there is no good reason to disagree with the official nomenclature. Statements that cellobiose is the repeating unit add confusion and limit thinking on the range of possible shapes of cellulose. Other frequent flaws in drawings with cellobiose as the repeating unit include incorporation of O-1 as the linkage oxygen atom instead of O-4 (the O-1 hydroxyl is the leaving group in glycoside synthesis). Also, n often erroneously represents the number of cellobiose units when n should denote the degree of polymerization i.e., the number of glucose residues in the polysaccharide.

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Acknowledgments

John Vercellotti, Carlos Stortz, and Hee-Jin Kim all commented helpfully on a preliminary version of the manuscript. Contributions of the anonymous reviewers for the journal are gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Regional Research Center, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd., New Orleans, LA, 70124, USA

    Alfred D. French

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  1. Alfred D. French
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Correspondence to Alfred D. French.

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French, A.D. Glucose, not cellobiose, is the repeating unit of cellulose and why that is important. Cellulose 24, 4605–4609 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1450-3

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