Abstract
Some specific glycosyltransferases are now known to be expressed on the cell surface, in addition to their traditional intracellular locations. The best studied cell surface glycosyl transferase is β1, 4-galactosyltransferase, which functions as a cell adhesion molecule during fertilization and embryonic development by binding to specific glycoside ligands in the extracellular matrix. The recent cloning of β1, 4-galactosyltransferase has provided a molecular hypothesis to account for its expression on the cell surface. This has enabled one to selectively manipulate its expression on the cell surface and examine the consequences on selected cellular interactions.
