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Databases and Tools in Glycobiology

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Therapeutic Proteins

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 899))

Abstract

Glycans are crucial to the functioning of multicellular organisms. They may also play a role as mediators between host and parasite or symbiont. As many proteins (>50%) are posttranslationally modified by glycosylation, this mechanism is considered to be the most widespread posttranslational modification in eukaryotes. These surface modifications alter and regulate structure and biological activities/functions of proteins/biomolecules as they are largely involved in the recognition process of the appropriate structure in order to bind to the target cells. Consequently, the recognition of glycans on cellular surfaces plays a crucial role in the promotion or inhibition of various diseases and, therefore, glycosylation itself is considered to be a critical protein quality control attribute for commercial therapeutics, which is one of the fastest growing segments in the pharmaceutical industry.

With the development of glycobiology as a separate discipline, a number of databases and tools became available in a similar way to other well-established “omics.” Alleviating the recognized shortcomings of the available tools for data storage and retrieval is one of the highest priorities of the international glycoinformatics community. In the last decade, major efforts have been made, by leading scientific groups, towards the integration of a number of major databases and tools into a single portal, which would act as a centralized data repository for glycomics, equipped with a number of comprehensive analytical tools for data systematization, analysis, and comparison. This chapter provides an overview of the most important carbohydrate-related databases and glycoinformatic tools.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Keith F. Tipton from The School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin for valuable suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NIBRT Glycobiology Laboratory, The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Dublin, Ireland

    Natalia V. Artemenko & Pauline M. Rudd

  2. School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Andrew G. McDonald & Gavin P. Davey

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  1. Natalia V. Artemenko
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  2. Andrew G. McDonald
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  3. Gavin P. Davey
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  4. Pauline M. Rudd
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Correspondence to Pauline M. Rudd .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. MedImmune, LLC, MedImmune Way One, Gaithersburg, 20878, USA

    Vladimir Voynov

  2. , Department of Physical Biochemistry, Biogen Idec, Cambridge Center 14, Cambridge, 02142, Massachusetts, USA

    Justin A. Caravella

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Artemenko, N.V., McDonald, A.G., Davey, G.P., Rudd, P.M. (2012). Databases and Tools in Glycobiology. In: Voynov, V., Caravella, J. (eds) Therapeutic Proteins. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 899. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-921-1_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-921-1_21

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