Glucose are termed glucans. Glucose is produced by plants through the photosynthesis using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and can be used by all living organisms as an energy and carbon source. However, most glucose does not occur in its free form, but in the form of its polymers, i.e. lactose, sucrose, starch and others which are energy reserve substances, and cellulose and chitin, which are components of the cell wall in plants or fungi and arthropods, respectively. These polymers are degraded to glucose during food intake by animals, fungi and bacteria using enzymes. All animals are also able to produce
Industrial fermentation of glucose or other carbon sources which would encourage growth, and like primary metabolites are released into the surrounding medium without rupture of the cell membrane. In the early days of the biotechnology industry, most biopharmaceutical products were made in "E. coli"; by 2004 more biopharmaceuticals were manufactured in eukaryotic cells, like CHO cells, than in microbes, but used similar bioreactor systems. Insect cell culture systems came into use in the 2000s as well. Of primary interest among the intracellular components are microbial enzymes: catalase, amylase, protease, pectinase, glucose isomerase, cellulase, hemicellulase, lipase, lactase, streptokinase and many others. Recombinant proteins,