Putting glycobiology on a structural footing.

www.sciencedirect.com Carbohydrates and their conjugates represent the largest and most varied class of biological macromolecules. While protein and DNA are stuck with their linear arrangement of a limited repertoire of monomers, sugars can be linked to each other (or proteins, lipids) through a range of linkages giving rise to a bewildering and confusing set of tree-like molecules. Consequently the mechanisms of glycan synthesis or their interaction with specific proteins have been difficult to study at the atomic level. This, at least partially, explains why glycans and the biology linked to them (glycobiology) have been largely ignored, where possible, by the average biologist.