Role of Gal and GalNAc containing glycans in various physiological processes

Abstract EN

Glycoconjugates are involved in the vital physiological functions including blood group determination, cancer recognition, protein stabilization, sperm-egg adhesion and pathogenic interaction in body.

These diverse biological functions of Glycoconjugates are regulated by complex oligosaccharide structures linked with proteins and lipids in macromolecular assemblies.

The diversity in oligosaccharide chains attached with lipids and proteins is specifically linked with the conformational behavior of sugar residues giving rise to unique carbohydrate structures with wide range of sequence and anomeric linkage.

This is a challenging task to explore the relationship between biological processes and stereo chemical behavior of sugar residues.

Current review article focuses the specific stereo chemical involvement (anomery and linkages) of Gal and its derivative Gal NAc in wide range of cellular activities.

These sugar residues exhibit different physiological functions at the terminal and sub terminal position in glycans.