Chemical biology tools for studying carbohydrate processing enzymes

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The modification of proteins with sugars is known as protein glycosylation and is a common modification of cellular proteins in all kingdoms of life. Glycosylation is particularly abundant in multicellular eukaryotes, where over half of all proteins are thought to be modified by sugars linked together for form what are known as glycans. The dedication of approximately 300 genes within the human genome to the regulation of glycoconjugates highlights the important roles played by these species. The enzymes responsible for building of glycoconjugates are glycosyltransferases and those that break them down are known as glycosidases. The importance of these enzymes rests in the roles they play in regulating the structures and abundance of glycoconjugates, which have been found to alter protein function, mediate molecular interactions, and alter the stability of proteins. Striking findings in the past few years have also shown that protein glycosylation acts directly to regulate signaling and transcription. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council (USA) identified the area of glycoscience as a promising and emerging area of research that merits significant investment.