Today’s post is a guest blog from Michael Curtin in the cellular analysis and proteomics group at Promega.
Glycobiology is the study of carbohydrates and their role in biology. Glycans, defined as “compounds consisting of a large number of monosaccharides linked glycosidically” are present in all living cells and coat cell membranes and are integral components of cell walls (1). They play diverse roles, including critical functions in cell signaling, molecular recognition, immunity and inflammation. They are the cell-surface molecules that define the ABO blood groups and must be taken into consideration to ensure successful blood transfusions. (2).The process by which a sugar moiety is attached to a biological compound is referred to as glycosylation. Protein glycosylation is a form of post-translational modification, which is important for many biological processes and often serves as an analog switch that modulates protein activity.The class of enzymes responsible for transferring the sugar moiety onto proteins is called a glycosyltransferase (GT).
GTs can be divided into three major types based on their roles:
- Oligosaccharide elongation for peptidoglycan biosynthesis
- Regulation of protein activities by post-translational modification
- Small molecule glucuronidation as means of drug metabolism
