Chemical reporters to study mammalian O-glycosylation

Glycans play essential roles in a range of cellular processes and have been shown to contribute to various pathologies. The diversity and dynamic nature of glycan structures and the complexities of glycan biosynthetic pathways make it challenging to study the roles of specific glycans in normal cellular function and disease. Chemical reporters have emerged as powerful tools to characterise glycan structures and monitor dynamic changes in glycan levels in a native context. A variety of tags can be introduced onto specific monosaccharides via the chemical modification of endogenous glycan structures or by metabolic or enzymatic incorporation of unnatural monosaccharides into cellular glycans. These chemical reporter strategies offer unique opportunities to study and manipulate glycan functions in living cells or whole organisms. In this review, we discuss recent advances in metabolic oligosaccharide engineering and chemoenzymatic glycan labelling, focusing on their application to the study of mammalian O-linked glycans. We describe current barriers to achieving glycan labelling specificity and highlight innovations that have started to pave the way to overcome these challenges.

A Sweet Galactose Transfer – Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering as a Tool to Study Glycans in Plasmodium Infection

The use of artificial galactose derivatives and labelling through iEDDA reaction in the liver stage of <i>Plasmodium </i>infection showed increased uptake in infected hepatic cells, through participation of GLUT1 transporters. Furthermore, unprotected derivatives are transferred from the mosquito host to the <i>Plasmodium</i> <i>berghei</i> parasite. This strategy has the potential to provide new insights into <i>Plasmodium</i> glycobiology.

A Sweet Galactose Transfer – Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering as a Tool to Study Glycans in Plasmodium Infection

The use of artificial galactose derivatives and labelling through iEDDA reaction in the liver stage of <i>Plasmodium </i>infection showed increased uptake in infected hepatic cells, through participation of GLUT1 transporters. Furthermore, unprotected derivatives are transferred from the mosquito host to the <i>Plasmodium</i> <i>berghei</i> parasite. This strategy has the potential to provide new insights into <i>Plasmodium</i> glycobiology.

Asking more from metabolic oligosaccharide engineering

Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering (MOE) is a groundbreaking strategy which has been largely used in the last decades, as a powerful strategy for glycans understanding. The present review aims to highlight recent studies that are pushing the boundaries of MOE applications.