Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology
Online ISSN : 1883-2113
Print ISSN : 0915-7352
ISSN-L : 0915-7352
Molecular Cloning and Characterization of Sialyltransferases
Katsutoshi Sasaki
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1996 Volume 8 Issue 41 Pages 195-215

Details
Abstract

Sialylated oligosaccharides of glycoproteins and glycolipids have been implicated in many biological processes such as cell adhesion and receptor recognition. The structural diversity and regulated expression of sialylglycoconjugates appear to correlate with their functions. Sialyltransferase genes will be very useful for elucidating the biological functions of sialylglycoconjugates and for understanding the mechanisms of their regulated expression. To date, 12 kinds of sialyltransferase genes have been cloned. The enzymatic analyses have revealed that one linkage can be synthesized by multiple enzymes. Each of the sialyltransferase genes was expressed differentially in tissue-, cell-type-, and stage-specific manner, to regulate the sialylation pattern on the cell surface at the transcriptional level. The biological functions of the specific sialylglycoconjugates have been demonstrated directly by using the cloned sialyltransferase cDNAs. In addition, isolation of the sialyltransferase cDNAs enabled us to synthesize large amounts of sialylated oligosaccharides or to manipulate the carbohydrate structure of recombinant therapeutic glycoproteins. An understanding of the functional significance of sialylglycoconjugates will lead to a variety of applications including the invention of new therapeutic drugs.

Content from these authors
© FCCA, Forum; Carbohydrates Coming of Age
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top