ABSTRACT
I. GLYCOPEPTIDES A. Introduction Many peptides and proteins in nature carry carbohydrate moieties [1,2] that are covalently bound to amino acid side chains through N-or O-glycosidic linkage.* The oligosaccharide chain of these biopolymers affects the properties of the parent compound in many and diverse ways (e.g., uptake, excretion, proteolytic stability, solubility, conformation) and has a significant impact on their biological function. As a logical consequence of these important effects, synthetic and biological studies of glycopeptides and glycoproteins have been very attractive areas of research. A comprehensive book on glycopeptides and related compounds has appeared [4] and several reviews have also described the progress in the development of methods for the solid-phase synthesis of glycopeptides [5-11].
