Post-translation modifications of neural cell surface molecules

Neural cells seem to express a relatively low number of adhesion molecules at their surface. The hypothesis of cell surface modulation postulates that a repertoire of specificities and binding affinities might result from alteration over time of the amount, distribution or chemical properties of a particular kind of molecules. We are describing two post-translational modifications; glycosylation and glypiation; which affect the neural cell adhesive molecule (N-CAM). We produced a monoclonal antibody recognizing only the highly sialyled of N-CAM and reported some of its applications. We also showed that N-CAM-120 is anchored to the membranes via a complex glycane-phosphatidylinositol.