title: A guide into glycosciences: How chemistry, biochemistry and biology cooperate to crack the sugar code.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The most demanding challenge in research on molecular aspects within the flow of biological information is posed by the complex carbohydrates (glycan part of cellular glycoconjugates). How the 'message' encoded in carbohydrate 'letters' is 'read' and 'translated' can only be unraveled by interdisciplinary efforts.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review provides a didactic step-by-step survey of the concept of the sugar code and the way strategic combination of experimental approaches characterizes structure-function relationships, with resources for teaching.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The unsurpassed coding capacity of glycans is an ideal platform for generating a broad range of molecular 'messages'. Structural and functional analyses of complex carbohydrates have been made possible by advances in chemical synthesis, rendering production of oligosaccharides, glycoclusters and neoglycoconjugates possible. This availability facilitates to test the glycans as ligands for natural sugar receptors (lectins). Their interaction is a means to turn sugar-encoded information into cellular effects. Glycan/lectin structures and their spatial modes of presentation underlie the exquisite specificity of the endogenous lectins in counterreceptor selection, that is, to home in on certain cellular glycoproteins or glycolipids.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding how sugar-encoded 'messages' are 'read' and 'translated' by lectins provides insights into fundamental mechanisms of life, with potential for medical applications.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química Física "Rocasolano", CSIC, Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), 07110 Bunyola, Mallorca, Illes Baleares, Spain. Electronic address: d.solis@iqfr.csic.es.
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solís
authors.affiliation: Shemyakin & Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, 117871 GSP-7, V-437, Moscow, Russian Federation. Electronic address: bovin@carb.ibch.ru.
authors.forename: Nicolai V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Bovin
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK. Electronic address: Anthony.Davis@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Anthony P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Physical Biology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, Ramiro de Maeztu, 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: jjbarbero@cib.csic.es.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Barbero
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Physical Biology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, Ramiro de Maeztu, 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: romero@cib.csic.es.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, P.O. Box 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8, Canada. Electronic address: roy.rene@uqam.ca.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.affiliation: Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, U nemocnice 3, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic. Electronic address: ksmet@lf1.cuni.cz.
authors.forename: Karel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smetana
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Veterinärstr. 13, 80539 München, Germany. Electronic address: gabius@tiph.vetmed.uni-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Gabius
mesh_terms: D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D006023:Glycoproteins; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D011134:Polysaccharides
keywords: Conformer; Crystallography; Dendrimer; Glycan; Lectin; Neoglycoconjugate