Abstract
Asparagine-linked sugar chains of glycoproteins can be classified structurally into three groups; the high mannose type, the complex type and the hybrid type. The occurrence of common core structure in each group is accounted for by the unique biosynthetic pathway of the asparaginelinked sugar chains. Accumulating evidence showing that the outer chain moieties of the complex type sugar chains have structural variations suggests that they play key roles in cellular recognition processes.
