Twisting of bundles of bacterial cellulose microfibrils

The majority of, but not all, bundles of bacterial cellulose microfibrils show a characteristic left‐handed twist which has a pitch of about 1 μ. The remainder show no apparent coiling. The twist must reflect an internal strain in the component microfibrils which may be due to a slight progressive molecular asymmetry in the way in which glucose residues are incorporated into the microfibril.