Automation in Glycan Synthesis

Nucleic acids, proteins, and glycoconjugates, the three major marcomolucules, are key to the signal transduction processes in living organisms. Nucleic acids can be synthesized via chemical and biological methods with the aid of the polymerase chain reaction, and protein sequences, which are encoded by DNA, can therefore be easily determined, produced, and manipulated through recombinant DNA technology. In addition, automatic synthesizers are available for the synthesis of these linear polymers using a single protecting-group strategy in the iterative process. Saccharides, however, are often branched and made with a diverse set of enzymes. There is no information carrier that encodes a particular saccharide sequence. Traditional synthesis of saccharides requires multiple protection and deprotection steps and stereocontrol in each glycosylation reaction. Development of automatic saccharide synthesis can speed up the preparation of saccharides for study and thus facilitate the progression of glycoscience research.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, No. 128, Section 2, Academia Road, Taipei, 115, Taiwan

   Chung-Yi Wu & Chi-Huey Wong

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chung-Yi Wu or Chi-Huey Wong .

Editors and Affiliations

1. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

   Tamao Endo

2. Department of Biomolecular Systems, Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany

   Peter H. Seeberger

3. Dept. Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

   Gerald W. Hart

4. Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan

   Chi-Huey Wong

5. Systems Glycobiology Group, RIKEN-Max Planck Joint Research Center for Systems Chemical Biology, Wako, Saitama, Japan

   Naoyuki Taniguchi

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