Glycosylation

Glycosylation is the reaction in which a carbohydrate (or 'glycan'), i.e. a glycosyl donor, is attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule (a glycosyl acceptor) in order to form a glycoconjugate. In biology (but not always in chemistry), glycosylation usually refers to an enzyme-catalysed reaction, whereas glycation (also 'non-enzymatic glycation' and 'non-enzymatic glycosylation') may refer to a non-enzymatic reaction.

Glycosylation is a form of co-translational and post-translational modification. Glycans serve a variety of structural and functional roles in membrane and secreted proteins. The majority of proteins synthesized in the rough endoplasmic reticulum undergo glycosylation. Glycosylation is also present in the cytoplasm and nucleus as the O-GlcNAc modification. Aglycosylation is a feature of engineered antibodies to bypass glycosylation. Five classes of glycans are produced:

• N-linked glycans attached to a nitrogen of asparagine or arginine side-chains. N-linked glycosylation requires participation of a special lipid called dolichol phosphate.
• O-linked glycans attached to the hydroxyl oxygen of serine, threonine, tyrosine, hydroxylysine, or hydroxyproline side-chains, or to oxygens on lipids such as ceramide.
• Phosphoglycans linked through the phosphate of a phosphoserine.
• C-linked glycans, a rare form of glycosylation where a sugar is added to a carbon on a tryptophan side-chain. Aloin is one of the few naturally occurring substances.
• Glypiation, which is the addition of a GPI anchor that links proteins to lipids through glycan linkages.