The utility of carbohydrate microarrays in glycomics

Carbohydrate microarrays are powerful tools in glycomics. Interactions of different carbohydrate structures with a wide variety of biological targets, including proteins, RNA, viruses, and whole cells, have been investigated using this technique. Binding preferences and specificities, inhibition of interactions, enzymatic activities, and structure-function relationships have been determined. Screening and characterization of antibodies have been conducted using microarrays. Binding of whole cells to the arrays has been exploited to search for novel binding proteins and to detect bacteria in blood. Here, we review the different techniques for carbohydrate microarray production and application. To illustrate the utility of arrays for glycomics research, some select experiments are discussed in greater detail.