ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief introduction into the different types of glycoconjugates/glycans such as glycoproteins, glycosamin-oglycans (GAG), peptidoglycans (PG), lipopolysaccharides (LPS), aminoglycosides; glycosylation strategies used by nature are also considered. For the lipoglycans, lipoteichoic acid (LTA) and glycerophosphatidylinositol (GPI), and glycosphingolipids (GSL) the reader is referred to Chapter 10. 2.2 GLYCOCONJUGATES: GENERAL FEATURES AND
GLYCOSYLATION The various properties of glycoconjugates are only in part encoded by genes but fine-tuning is rather achieved through posttranslational
modification (Davis, 2004) by means of carbohydrate-modifying enzymes (see also other chapters of this book, e.g., Chapters 4-9), allowing for a rapid and flexible adaptation to the requirements of the environment where they act.
