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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Pulse-chase Analysis of N-linked Sugar Chains from Glycoproteins in Mammalian Cells
Published on: April 27, 2010
The glycan code of the endoplasmic reticulum: asparagine-linked carbohydrates as protein maturation and
Daniel N Hebert1, Scott C Garman, Maurizio Molinari
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. dhebert@biochem.umass.edu
Abstract:
The majority of proteins that traverse the secretory pathway receive asparagine (Asn)-linked glycosylations. Glycans are bulky hydrophilic modifications that serve a variety of structural and functional roles within the cell. Here, we review the recent growing knowledge on the role of Asn-linked glycans as maturation and quality-control protein tags in the early secretory pathway. The carbohydrate composition encodes crucial information about the structure, localization and age of glycoproteins. The "glycan code" is encoded by a series of glycosidases and carbohydrate transferases that line the secretory pathway. This code is deciphered by carbohydrate-binding proteins that possess distinct carbohydrate binding properties and act as molecular chaperones or sorting receptors. These glycosidases and transferases work in concert with resident secretory pathway carbohydrate-binding proteins to form a network that assists in the maturation and trafficking of both native and aberrant glycoproteins within the cell.
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