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Updated: May 19, 2026

Heterokaryon Technique for Analysis of Cell Type-specific Localization
Published on: March 11, 2011
Bifunctional Monosaccharides Preferentially Localize to Nuclear Subcompartments
Pavel Barahtjan1,2, Juan M Iglesias-Artola1, Kristin Böhlig1
1Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
Recent progress in glycan research has been driven by widespread implementations of metabolic oligosaccharide engineering. Complementing existing approaches, we here introduce bifunctional, UV-crosslinkable, and clickable N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylgalactosamine analogues, which enable direct visualization of the intracellular probe distribution as well as distinguishing monomeric and macromolecule-bound fractions. Using this feature, we find that monomeric N-acetylmonosaccharides partition into RNA-rich nuclear compartments such as nuclear speckles and nucleoli. This suggests the existence of spatially separated N-acetylmonosaccharide pools within the nucleoplasm. Taken together, bifunctional N-acetylmonosaccharide probes are versatile discovery tools for probing intracellular localization of monosaccharides.
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