Potato starch granules consist primarily of two tightly packed polysaccharides, amylose and amylopectin. Amylose, which amount for 20-30%, is the principal linear component, but a fraction is in fact slightly branched. Amylopectin is typically the major component and is extensively branched, containing short chains with an average length of 22-25 glucosyl residues. The branching pattern is not well known, but branch point clustering guides chains to determine the overall starch granule architecture and starch functionality. The clusters consist of 5-10 grouped short chains, which are interconnected by long chains with more than 36 residues. The clusters consist of still smaller, very tightly branched building blocks. The clusters direct the semicrystalline structures found inside the starch granules. The crystals, which are ~5.2. nm thick, contain double helices formed from the external chains extending from the clusters. A range of enzymes is involved in the biosynthesis of the cluster structures and linear segments. These are required for sugar activation, chain elongation, branching, and trimming of the final branching pattern. As an interesting feature, potato amylopectin is substituted with low amounts of phosphate groups monoesterified to the C-3 and the C-6 carbons of the glucose units. They seem to align well in the granular structure and have tremendous effects on starch degradation in the potato and functionality of the refined starch. A specific dikinase catalyzes the phosphorylation of amylopectin.