Relationship between structure and function.

[nudaveritas]

A glycogen polymer has its structure with many branches. My question is ''how is this related to its function? ''

Is it so that the ezymes can react easily with it due to its large surface area ?

just to be sure, because I can't find reliable answers online.

Thanks

[immortal]

A glycogen polymer acts as a substrate for the enzymes to act on. There are processes which are spontaneous i.e they don't require any activation energy from outside the system to transform the substrate which is the input to produce byproducts which is the output of that process. There are non-spontaneous process too which require a kick start or an activation energy from outside to transform the substrate in a desired particluar pathway so that the desired byproducts are obtained after completion of this non-spontaneous process. It is in this non-spontaneous processes that the role of enzymes come into play and it is they that give the substrates the necessary activation energy to make a non-feasible reaction feasible. Therefore the role of the substrates or glycogen polymer or their functions is that they can be transformed into different chemical pathways so that energy can be extracted from those chemical pathways to do some useful work.

[nudaveritas]

that was very helpful. thanks a lot!