Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 8, Issue 5, 2004

The present issue of Current Organic Chemistry, “ Complex Carbohydrates” consists of six reviews on complex carbohydrate structures that modify proteins and lipids. The authors of these articles are leading researchers in the areas of glycan structure / function relationships and have performed pioneering studies on glycoproteins, proteoglycans and glycosphingolipids. The first review by Professor G.W Hart's group is Read More

O-linked β-N-acetylglucosmaine (O-GlcNAc) is an essential, ubiquitous, dynamic modification of metazoan nucleocytoplasmic proteins. Unlike prototypical glycosylation, O-GlcNAc is not elongated into more complex structures and it is localized almost exclusively to nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. O-GlcNAc modifies Ser / Thr residues in peptide motifs either identical or similar to those used by kinases. In some instances, O Read More

Cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common lethal genetic disease of Caucasians, is characterized by pathology to the exocrine organs, especially the lungs which are the site of most of the morbidity and mortality of the disease. The gene causing CF was defined more than a decade ago and a deletion of F508 has been shown to be the most common mutation. The gene product the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance r Read More

Connective tissue matrix contains the linear polysaccharide (glycosaminoglycan) hyaluronan, and the glycosaminoglycans chondroitin / dermatan sulfate, and keratan sulfate covalently linked to protein (proteoglycans). Hyaluronan is a linear polymer consisting of alternating N-acetylglucosamine and glucuronic acid residues; chondroitin / dermatan has alternating N-acetylgalactosamine and glucuronic or iduron Read More

Secreted mucins are a family of polydisperse, high molecular mass and highly glycosylated glycoproteins synthesized by mucosae, or skin of amphibians and fish. Most secreted mucins are synthesized in goblet cells of epithelial surfaces or mucous cells of exocrine glands. They are probably the most complicated biological molecules ever described. Except for a low molecular mass species, the peptide part of mucin, Read More

Glycosphingolipids aggregate with sphingomyelin and cholesterol in the outer leaflet of the plasma membranes to become included in transmembrane domains comprising saturated phospholipids in the inner leaflet, select transmembrane proteins and acylated proteins anchored to the cytofacial aspect. Such domains constitute liquid-ordered, planar and short-lived rafts, floating in the liquid-disordered glycerophosp Read More

The nature of protein modifications, particularly surface glycosylation, in Plasmodium falciparum has long been observed, but in recent times controversial reports appeared. It is considered that the surface modifications, O- and N-glycosylation, have been of particular importance to the malarial parasite itself as well as to the erythrocyte. The modifications in the erythrocytic membranes and changes in the parasitic struc Read More