The DOI matches its Crossref record; 23 of the 23 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Fractal Structure of Glycogen: A Clever Solution to Optimize Cell Metabolism
Open accessAbstract
Fractal objects are complex structures built with a simple procedure involving very little information. This has an obvious interest for living beings, because they are splendid examples of optimization to achieve the most efficient structure for a number of goals by means of the most economic way. The lung alveolar structure, the capillary network, and the structure of several parts of higher plant organization, such as ears, spikes, umbels, etc., are supposed to be fractals, and, in fact, mathematical functions based on fractal geometry algorithms can be developed to simulate them. However, the statement that a given biological structure is fractal should imply that the iterative process of its construction has a real biological meaning, i.e., that its construction in nature is achieved by means of a single genetic, enzymatic, or biophysical mechanism successively repeated; thus, such an iterative process should not be just an abstract mathematical tool to reproduce that object. This property has not been proven at present for any biological structure, because the mechanisms that build the objects mentioned above are unknown in detail. In this work, we present results that show that the glycogen molecule could be the first known real biological fractal structure.
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“Muscle glycogen degradation depends on the activation of glycogen phosphorylase and debranching enzymes, which ultimately split glucose residues from the glycogen chain [54].”
From Regulation of Energy Substrate Metabolism in Endurance Exercise (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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Citations
Cites
The Fractal Geometry of Nature
Mandelbrot, B. B., & WHEELER, J. A. (1983) · American Journal of Physics · doi:10.1119/1.13295 · Cited by 21,964
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Sparrow, C. T., & Mandelbrot, B. B. (1984) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (General) · doi:10.2307/2981858 · Cited by 14,865
Iterated function systems and the global construction of fractals
Barnsley, M. F., & Demko, S. G. (1985) · Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A Mathematical and Physical Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspa.1985.0057 · Cited by 972
Science in Pictures: Chaos and Fractals in Human Physiology
Goldberger, A. L., Rigney, D. R., & West, B. J. (1990) · Scientific American · doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0290-42 · Cited by 805
Glycogen phosphorylase: control by phosphorylation and allosteric effectors
Johnson, L. N. (1992) · The FASEB Journal · doi:10.1096/fasebj.6.6.1544539 · Cited by 323
Fractal geometry: a design principle for living organisms
Weibel, E. R. (1991) · American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology · doi:10.1152/ajplung.1991.261.6.l361 · Cited by 304
A new look at the biogenesis of glycogen
Alonso, M. D., Lomako, J., Lomako, W. M., & Whelan, W. J. (1995) · The FASEB Journal · doi:10.1096/fasebj.9.12.7672505 · Cited by 248
Control of Glycogen Metabolism
(1965) · Postgraduate Medical Journal · doi:10.1136/pgmj.41.474.227-c · Cited by 220
A revision of the Meyer‐Bernfeld model of glycogen and amylopectin
Gunja‐Smith, Z., MARSHALL, J. J., Mercier, C., Smith, E. E., & Whelan, W. J. (1970) · FEBS Letters · doi:10.1016/0014-5793(70)80573-7 · Cited by 212
Optimization of molecular design in the evolution of metabolism: the glycogen molecule
Meléndez‐Hevia, E., Waddell, T. K., & Shelton, E. D. (1993) · Biochemical Journal · doi:10.1042/bj2950477 · Cited by 187
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The Role of Skeletal Muscle Glycogen Breakdown for Regulation of Insulin Sensitivity by Exercise
Jensen, J., Rustad, P. I., Kolnes, A. J., & Lai, Y.-C. (2011) · Frontiers in Physiology · doi:10.3389/fphys.2011.00112 · Cited by 412
“A glycogen particles in skeletal muscles can contain as much as 50,000 glucose moieties linked with α(1 → 4) bonds and branched by α(1 → 6) bonds (Meléndez et al., 1999).”
BackgroundZois, C. E., & Harris, A. L. (2016) · Journal of Molecular Medicine · doi:10.1007/s00109-015-1377-9 · Cited by 267
“Together, glycogen synthase and glycogen branching enzyme are both required for the globular and branched structure of glycogen, which is essential to increase its solubility by creating a hydrophilic surface and reduce the osmotic pressure within cells [34, 35].”
BackgroundPelletier, J., Bellot, G. L., Gounon, P., Lacas‐Gervais, S., Pouysségur, J., & Mazure, N. M. (2012) · Frontiers in Oncology · doi:10.3389/fonc.2012.00018 · Cited by 213
“This process is repeated to form a huge fractal structure, as described by Whelan’s model (Meléndez et al., 1999).”
MethodThe dynamic life of the glycogen granule
Prats, C., Graham, T. E., & Shearer, J. (2018) · Journal of Biological Chemistry · doi:10.1074/jbc.r117.802843 · Cited by 196
“The coordinated action of GS andGBE create the spherical and branched structure of the granule, which ensures solubility and creates a hydrophilic surface necessary to reduce the osmotic pressure exerted by each granule (30, 31).”
BackgroundIs maximization of molar yield in metabolic networks favoured by evolution?
Schuster, S., Pfeiffer, T., & Fell, D. A. (2007) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.12.008 · Cited by 184
“An example is provided by the molecular structure of glycogen, which has been proven to be optimal (Meléndez et al., 1999).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Meléndez, R., Meléndez-Hevia, E., & Canela, E. I.
- Affiliations
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- ORCID
- Canela, Enric I.
- Venue
- Biophysical Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-09
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1327-1332
- ISSN
- 0006-3495 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC1300422
- OpenAlex
- W2051584393
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (submittedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Funders
- Consejería de Educación, Universidades y Sostenibilidad, Gobierno de Canarias
- Ministerio de Educación y Cultura
- Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològica
- Institut Nacional d'Educacio Fisica de Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Glycogen Storage Diseases and Myoclonus
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Mathematical Theories and Applications
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fractal and DNA sequence analysis
- Keywords
- glycogen, fractal structure, fractal geometry, biological optimization, cellular metabolism, glycogen structure
- MeSH terms
- Carbohydrate Conformation, Cells, Glucosyltransferases, Glycogen, Glycoproteins, Models, Biological, Models, Molecular, Fractals
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