Chemical biology tools for studying carbohydrate processing enzymes

用糖修饰蛋白质被称为蛋白质糖基化，是所有生命王国中细胞蛋白质的常见修饰。糖基化在多细胞真核生物中特别丰富，其中一半以上的蛋白质被认为是通过连接在一起的糖来修饰的，形成了所谓的聚糖。人类基因组中大约有300个基因参与糖缀合物的调控，这突出了这些物种所起的重要作用。负责构建糖缀合物的酶是糖基转移酶，而分解它们的酶被称为糖苷酶。这些酶的重要性在于它们在调节糖缀合物的结构和丰度方面所起的作用，糖缀合物已被发现可以改变蛋白质功能，介导分子相互作用，并改变蛋白质的稳定性。在过去的几年里，惊人的发现也表明，蛋白质糖基化直接调节信号和转录。最近，美国国家科学院和国家研究委员会（美国）将糖科学领域确定为一个有前途的新兴研究领域，值得大量投资。

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.