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Protein Glycosylation

Protein Glycosylation

Glycosylation, the most common post-translational modification for proteins, serves diverse functions. Adding sugars to proteins makes the proteins more resistant to proteolytic digestion. Glycosylated proteins can act as markers and receptors to promote cell-cell adhesion. Additionally, they have many essential quality control functions in the cell, such as correct protein folding and facilitating transport of misfolded proteins to the cytosol, which can be degraded.
Glycosylation occurs in...

Conjugated Proteins

Conjugated Proteins

Simple proteins and protein complexes contain only amino acids. In contrast, many other proteins, called conjugated proteins, covalently bond with non-protein moieties.
Nucleoproteins are protein complexes that contain nucleic acids, categorized as deoxyribonucleoproteins (DNPs) or ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) respectively. The nucleosome is a typical example of a DNP where nuclear DNA is associated with histone proteins. The major antigen for the Covid-19 virus SARS-CoV is an RNP that is critical...

Conjugated Proteins

Conjugated Proteins

Simple proteins and protein complexes contain only amino acids. In contrast, many other proteins, called conjugated proteins, covalently bond with non-protein moieties.
Nucleoproteins are protein complexes that contain nucleic acids, categorized as deoxyribonucleoproteins (DNPs) or ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) respectively. The nucleosome is a typical example of a DNP where nuclear DNA is associated with histone proteins. The major antigen for the Covid-19 virus SARS-CoV is an RNP that is critical...

Glycocalyx and its Functions

Glycocalyx and its Functions

The glycocalyx is a carbohydrate-rich, fuzzy-appearing layer on the outer surface of the cell membrane. It is highly hydrophilic, because of this it attracts large amounts of water to the cell's surface. This aids the cell's interaction with the watery environment and also helps it to obtain substances dissolved in the water. It is also important for cell identification, self/non-self determination, and embryonic development and is used in cell-to-cell attachments to form tissues.
Components of...

Proteoglycans

Proteoglycans

Glycans, a class of complex heterogeneous molecules, can be covalently attached to proteins to form glycosylated proteins that regulate various physiological and pathological processes. Glycosylated proteins or glycoproteins comprise N-linked and O-linked oligosaccharides. O-glycosylation is the most common type of protein glycosylation. Here, glycans attach to the oxygen atom of the hydroxyl groups of Serine or Threonine residues. O-linked glycosylation occurs later in protein processing,...

Oligosaccharide Assembly

Oligosaccharide Assembly

Protein glycosylation starts in the ER lumen and continues in the Golgi apparatus. Glycosyltransferases catalyze the addition of sugar molecules or glycosylation of proteins. Usually, these enzymes add sugars to the hydroxyl groups of selected serine or threonine residues to form O-linked glycans or the amino groups of asparagine residues to form N-linked glycans. Different positions on the same polypeptide chain can contain differently linked glycans.
Multiple sugar molecules that may or may...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Glycan Node Analysis: A Bottom-up Approach to Glycomics

Glycan Node Analysis: A Bottom-up Approach to Glycomics

Published on: May 22, 2016

Overview of glycoconjugate analysis.

Ajit Varki¹, Hudson H Freeze², Adriana E Manzi¹

¹University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California.

Current Protocols in Protein Science

|August 19, 2009

Summary

Glycans, unlike DNA or proteins, are complex branched polymers. This overview explains glycan stereochemistry and representation methods for better understanding of glycosylation.

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Area of Science:

Carbohydrate Chemistry
Glycobiology
Biochemistry

Background:

DNA, RNA, and proteins are linear polymers with straightforward sequencing.
Glycans exhibit significant complexity due to branching and anomeric configurations (alpha and beta linkages).
Glycan biosynthesis (glycosylation) is complex, non-template-driven, cell-type specific, and difficult to predict.

Purpose of the Study:

To discuss the stereochemistry of monosaccharides and glycans.
To provide diagrammatic representations of monosaccharides (Fisher and Haworth projections).
To present formulas for representing glycan chains and a glossary of glycobiology terms.

Main Methods:

Review of existing literature on carbohydrate stereochemistry.
Compilation of diagrammatic representations for monosaccharides.
Development of formulas for glycan chain representation.

Main Results:

Detailed explanation of monosaccharide and glycan stereochemistry.
Illustrative examples of Fisher and Haworth representations.
Introduction of a systematic approach to glycan chain formula representation.

Conclusions:

Glycan complexity necessitates specialized methods for study.
Understanding stereochemistry and representation is crucial for glycobiology research.
This overview serves as a foundational resource for studying complex carbohydrates.