Recognising the attraction of sugars at the cell surface

Cook, G. M. W.

doi:10.1002/bies.950160412

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 46 publications

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“…In view of the notable fraction of the genome devoted to the production of the large array of enzymes assigned to glycan assembly [Brockhausen and Schachter, 1997;Sears and Wong, 1998;Kapitonov and Yu, 1999] it is reassuring that this investment into carrier modification will not be futile but can lead to functional relevance [Roseman, 1970;Marshall, 1972;Winterburn and Phelps, 1972;Berger et al, 1982;Olden et al, 1982;Sharon, 1984Sharon, , 1998Varki, 1993;Cook, 1994;Kopitz, 1997;Rudd and Dwek, 1997;Sharon and Lis, 1997;Mann and Waterman, 1998;Reuter and Gabius, 1999]. Indeed, the growing appreciation of the concept to consider oligosaccharides as information-storing coding units is reflected in the term 'sugar code' [Laine, 1997;Gabius, 2000].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Defining the Role of Glycans as Hardware in Information Storage and Transfer: Basic Principles, Experimental Approaches and Recent Progress

Solı́s¹,

Jiménez‐Barbero²,

Kaltner³

et al. 2000

Cells Tissues Organs

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The term ‘code’ in biological information transfer appears to be tightly and hitherto exclusively connected with the genetic code based on nucleotides and translated into functional activities via proteins. However, the recent appreciation of the enormous coding capacity of oligosaccharide chains of natural glycoconjugates has spurred to give heed to a new concept: versatile glycan assembly by the genetically encoded glycosyltransferases endows cells with a probably not yet fully catalogued array of meaningful messages. Enciphered by sugar receptors such as endogenous lectins the information of code words established by a series of covalently linked monosaccharides as letters for example guides correct intra- and intercellular routing of glycoproteins, modulates cell proliferation or migration and mediates cell adhesion. Evidently, the elucidation of the structural frameworks and the recognition strategies within the operation of the sugar code poses a fascinating conundrum. The far-reaching impact of this recognition mode on the level of cells, tissues and organs has fueled vigorous investigations to probe the subtleties of protein-carbohydrate interactions. This review presents information on the necessarily concerted approach using X-ray crystallography, molecular modeling, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, thermodynamic analysis and engineered ligands and receptors. This part of the treatise is flanked by exemplarily chosen insights made possible by these techniques.

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