Final answer:
Starch, glycogen, and cellulose are glucose-based polysaccharides important for energy storage and structural support in plants and animals; chitin and peptidoglycan serve similar roles in arthropods, fungi, and bacteria.
Step-by-step explanation:
Polysaccharides such as starch, cellulose, glycogen, chitin, and peptidoglycan are essential biological molecules composed of monosaccharides.
Starch is a storage form of energy in plants, glycogen serves a similar function in animals, cellulose provides structural support to plant cell walls, chitin is found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and cell walls of fungi, and peptidoglycan is a component of bacterial cell walls providing structural strength. All of these polysaccharides, except chitin, are made of glucose monomers, while chitin consists of a modified form of glucose.
Starch is composed of a mixture of two forms of glucose polymers, amylose and amylopectin, utilized by plants to store excess glucose. Cellulose is a linear chain of glucose molecules, making it a major element of plant cell walls and utilized in many human products like cardboard and paper. Glycogen, resembling starch in its glucose-based structure, is intricately branched and plays a crucial role in maintaining blood glucose levels in humans.
Chitin, though consisting of a modified glucose monomer, is similar in function to cellulose, providing structural strength in arthropod exoskeletons and fungal cell walls. Peptidoglycan, while not solely glucose-based, is a complex sugar-protein compound critical for bacterial cell integrity.