Abstract
Mass spectrometry (MS), which has advanced rapidly in recent years, is expected to become the tool of choice for high-throughput analysis of relationships between structures and functions of glycans. The structural analysis of glycans using MS employs a number of methods for pretreatment, derivatization, and interpretation. However, since none of these are universally applicable, researchers have to choose the most suitable method for their purpose on a case-by-case basis. MS can be used not only for structural analysis, but also for interaction analysis. Methods of analyzing glycomics using MS are still under development, and further improvement or reinforcements and interfaces with other reinforcing methodologies are expected in the future. Rather than developing a complex device or technique that must be assigned to highly trained specialists, the key to further advances in this field is to develop a technology that can be comfortably adopted by a wide range of bioresearchers.
