Biochemistry - The Chemical Reactions of Living Cells, Volume 1 - D. Metzler 1980
The Molecules We Are Made Of
Lipids
Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate
Lipids are not polymers in the strict sense of the word; however, both metabolically and structurally they are closely related to polyhydroxybutyrate, an important reserve substance found in Bacteria. This highly reduced polymer consists exclusively of D-β-hydroxybutyrate units linked by ester bonds. Each chain contains approximately 1500 residues. The Structure forms a compact right-handed helix with a 2-fold screw axis and a pitch of 0.60 nm [100]. In bacterial Cells, these chains are packed to form a thin layer approximately 5.0 nm thick. Since the length of a 1500-residue chain in an extended conformation is 440 nm, the chain must be folded approximately 88 times.
Class="center">
Last update: 06/08/2026
Editorial and Educational Adaptation: This material has been compiled based on the primary/original source text. The project team performed an editorial review, corrected technical inaccuracies, structured sections, and adapted the content for an educational format.
What was processed:
- elimination of formatting defects (OCR errors, structural breaks, corrupted characters);
- editorial organization of content;
- standardization of terminology in accordance with academic sources;
- verification of factual statements against the original source text.
All mentions of the author, publication year, and origin of the primary text have been preserved in accordance with the source.