Postgenome glycomics: The structures, interactions, and functions of complex sugars attached to proteins and lipids

Glycome is a term meant to cover the whole set of glycans produced in a single organism (or tissue) in analogy to genome and proteome. This concept follows as a consequence of the development in the post-genome era, since glycans play critical roles in di verse biological phenomena. It seems evident that at least 70-75 % of all proteins in animal and plant cells are glycosylated. It has been known for decades that cell surfaces are coated with glycans, but only in recent years has the view emerged that gly cans in many instances control or encode the biological (and immunological) activity and/or specificity of many proteins and lipids. The unifying theme of this application is a shared interest in the regulation mechanisms of glycan synthesis in different biological systems, the analysis of the underlying protein-carbohydrate recognition events, and the physiological importance of glycan structures, a theme covering a broad spectrum of glycobiologically relevant topics that we expect will give important f unctional insights into biological processes. We have determined glycan structures on bacterial proteins, plant proteins, and animal proteins, and also determined high-resolution structures of glycoproteins and protein-carbohydrate complexes. The motivati on has been to unravel the role of glycans in cellular and physiological processes and in health and disease. However, the analytical challenges are immense, since the potential information content of a glycome is approximately three orders of magnitude t hat of the corresponding proteome, and additional orders of magnitude over the genomic information. Glycoanalysis is thus thought to be one of the driving forces of the next wave of analytical development in the life sciences. To acquire momentum in this field, we have combined our resources to obtain the critical mass of personnel, instrumentation, and technology needed, and to improve our ability to absorb novel analytical techniques.