Enzymatic polymerization. II. Branching by rearrangement and its application to the dextran system

Abstract

AbstractIt is shown that increases in molecular weight and branching during the formation of dextran can be qualitatively accounted for by a random rearrangement of initially linear chains. Very large increases of molecular weight can result from the formation of branches at less than 1% of the glucose units of the original chains. The expressions presented do not account rigorously for the actual behavior of the dextran system, probably chiefly because the rearrangement process is no longer random when the molecules have become very large and highly branched.