protein glycosylation

Glycosylation, the attachment of sugar moieties to proteins, is a post-translational modification (PTM) that provides greater proteomic diversity than other PTMs. Glycosylation is critical for a wide range of biological processes, including cell attachment to the extracellular matrix and protein-ligand interactions in the cell. This PTM is characterized by various glycosidic linkages, including N-, O- and C-linked glycosylation, glypiation (GPI anchor attachment) and phosphoglycosylation. Glycoproteins can be detected, purified and analyzed by different strategies, including glycan staining and visualization, glycan cross-linking to agarose or magnetic resin for labeling or purification, or proteomic analysis by mass spectrometry, respectively.