ABSTRACT
Glycosylation constitutes a complex and ubiquitous post-translational event. Most proteins within living organisms contain sugar chains or glycans. Glycans differ in their mode of attachment to the peptidic chains and also present a large heterogeneity directly related to the glycosylation-machinery of the cell or the producing organism. In most cases, this heterogeneity is directly related to the biological function of glycans. Moreover, glycoproteins generally exist as populations of glycosylated variants (glycoforms) of a single polypeptide. In this chapter, we present a review of the structures of the different glycan families, as well as principal analytical techniques and recent developments of structural glycobiology.
