GlycoTraitR: an R package for characterizing structural heterogeneity in N-linked glycoproteomics data

Glycoproteomics data are rapidly accumulating owing to advances in mass spectrometry and specialized search engines that identify N-linked glycopeptide spectrum matches together with glycan structures. However, the structural heterogeneity of glycosylation remains difficult to interpret, and no unified trait-based framework analyzes these data at both glycosylation-site and protein levels.

We developed GlycoTraitR, an R package for trait-based analysis of structural heterogeneity in N-linked glycoproteomics data. It imports search-engine outputs, extracts biologically interpretable glycan structural traits, quantifies microheterogeneity and macroheterogeneity, and compares heterogeneity across experimental conditions.

The package and source code are freely available at https://github.com/matsui-lab/glycoTraitR. Documentation and a quick-start guide are available at https://matsui-lab.github.io/glycoTraitR/.