title: Computational approaches to define a human milk metaglycome.
abstract: The goal of deciphering the human glycome has been hindered by the lack of high-throughput sequencing methods for glycans. Although mass spectrometry (MS) is a key technology in glycan sequencing, MS alone provides limited information about the identification of monosaccharide constituents, their anomericity and their linkages. These features of individual, purified glycans can be partly identified using well-defined glycan-binding proteins, such as lectins and antibodies that recognize specific determinants within glycan structures.
  
  
  
  We present a novel computational approach to automate the sequencing of glycans using metadata-assisted glycan sequencing, which combines MS analyses with glycan structural information from glycan microarray technology. Success in this approach was aided by the generation of a 'virtual glycome' to represent all potential glycan structures that might exist within a metaglycomes based on a set of biosynthetic assumptions using known structural information. We exploited this approach to deduce the structures of soluble glycans within the human milk glycome by matching predicted structures based on experimental data against the virtual glycome. This represents the first meta-glycome to be defined using this method and we provide a publically available web-based application to aid in sequencing milk glycans.
  
  
  
  http://glycomeseq.emory.edu
  
  
  
  sagravat@bidmc.harvard.edu
  
  
  
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and.
authors.forename: Sanjay B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Agravat
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Xuezheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and.
authors.forename: Teerapat
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rojsajjakul
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and.
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides