title: Structural aspects of carbohydrates and the relation with their biological properties.
abstract: Structural diversity of carbohydrates plays a crucial role in their large variety of roles in biological systems. This paper focuses on aspects of structure and biological functions of three classes of carbohydrates, N-linked oligosaccharides, blood group oligosaccharides and glycosaminoglycans. Conformations and dynamics in solution, as well as structure of protein-carbohydrate complexes are discussed. A short overview also describes theoretical and experimental methodologies that are used in current glycobiological research, particularly high-resolution NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and methods of computational chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences,845 38 Bratislava, Slovakia. hricovini@savba.sk.
authors.forename: Milos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hricovíni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000379:methods; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D006025:Glycosaminoglycans; D009844:Oligosaccharides