Talk:Starch

Wordsmithing

The etymology section needs to be cleaned up; I'm not even sure what the second sentence is trying to say, or I would simply do it myself. Anyone want to take a stab at it?

Rdviii (talk) 01:40, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

I've never heard or read the term "amylum" with respect to starch. It is not a specific name, nor common--at least in the Anglosphere. I do not see the utility in including it (1) or suggesting it as a term in contemporary technical or general/lay discourse. It is needlessly esoteric (Latin) and would seem to serve only as a redirect for disambiguation. Additionally, not all starches are based on amylose, nor polymers using primarily α-1,4 glycosidic bonds. Comparing the terms "starch", "amylum" and "amylose" on Google Trends shows a small spike for "amylum" on 01Jul2026 @ 01:08 UTC, but a clear dominance of "starch:. I haven't reviewed edit history to sleuth out when the edit was made. -Anon--~~JA.USA.VT~~

 Done.--Smokefoot (talk) 18:42, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Word used incorrectly

The word "polymers" is misused in the very first paragraph of the article. A polymer is a substance that consists of long molecules composed of repeating units, each of which is called a monomer. To fix the problem, it is sufficient to remove the phrase "called polymers." Dratman (talk) 12:07, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

 Done.--Smokefoot (talk) 18:42, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Artificial synthesis of starch

Should there be a new dedicated chapter for "Artificial synthesis of starch" here?

It's a new science but papers seem to back it up as an actual reality. I think it warrants its own new dedicated section in the article since it doesn't neatly fits in any of the existing sections. And it's significant as it may help solve Climate change, global food shortages by creating starch a lot more efficiently and faster than plants can.

Chinese scientists completed the world’s first synthetic starch tech from CO2, its production rate is 8.5 times compared to agricultural production. This tech may solve the food crisis, and mitigate the global warming. The food issue of Martian immigrants will be solved

MangoTareeface9 (talk) 18:02, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

References

Mutants

For the record... The biochemistry of starch degradation is complicated enough that for this overview article, we (IMHO) do not have the capacity to describe organisms missing some of these enzymes. So, I removed these bits today: "loss of the GWD, leads to a starch excess (sex) phenotype,<ref>{{cite journal | pmid=11487701 | url=http://www.bb.iastate.edu/~thorn/BBMB607/2008--Starch/PDFfiles/The_Arabidopsis_sex1_mutant_is_2001.pdf | pmc=139133 | volume=13 | issue=8 | title=The Arabidopsis sex1 mutant is defective in the R1 protein, a general regulator of starch degradation in plants, and not in the chloroplast hexose transporter | date=August 2001 | journal=Plant Cell | pages=1907–18 | doi=10.1105/tpc.010091 | last1=Yu | first1=TS | last2=Kofler | first2=H | last3=Häusler | first3=RE | display-authors=etal | access-date=2014-02-13 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222162404/http://www.bb.iastate.edu/~thorn/BBMB607/2008--Starch/PDFfiles/The_Arabidopsis_sex1_mutant_is_2001.pdf | archive-date=2014-02-22 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and because starch cannot be phosphorylated, it accumulates in the plastids."

" if mutated (MEX1-mutant) results in maltose accumulation in the plastid.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 3818174 | pmid=24223944 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0079412 | volume=8 | issue=11 | title=Leaves of the Arabidopsis maltose exporter1 mutant exhibit a metabolic profile with features of cold acclimation in the warm |date=2013 | journal=PLOS ONE | pages=e79412 | last1 = Purdy | first1 = SJ | last2 = Bussell | first2 = JD | last3 = Nunn | first3 = CP | last4 = Smith | first4 = SM| bibcode=2013PLoSO...879412P | doi-access=free }}</ref> --Smokefoot (talk) 03:55, 3 February 2024 (UTC)