Blog

By: Richard D. Cummings

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of many types of cells contain members of a family of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs).  These enzymes utilize uridine diphosphate glucuronic...

By: Richard D. Cummings

One of the most unusual glycoproteins and one used commonly in biological research and immunology is KLH, which is derived from the giant keyhole limpet (Megathura crenulata)...

By: Richard D. Cummings

While plant cellulose is very famous, many commercial products containing cellulose actually use bacterial cellulose.  It is often a part of bacterial biofilms, typically of...

By: Richard D. Cummings

The definition of a rare sugar is a monosaccharide that is found in small quantities relative to more common sugars in nature, e.g., glucose and N-acetylglucosamine (1-3). ...

By: Richard D. Cummings

Sialic acid is a nonose (9-carbon) monosaccharide found in many organisms.  All vertebrates have sialic acid, while most invertebrates do not have sialic acid, but there are...

By: Richard D. Cummings

Collagen is the most common and abundant glycoprotein in animals (1).  Even sponges have collagen (termed spongin) and it is glycosylated much like mammalian collagen.  Its...

By: Richard D. Cummings

Many different monosaccharides from trioses (3-carbon) to decoses (10-carbon) and above are found in nature (1).  The most famous nonose (9-carbon) in human glycans is N...

By: Richard D. Cummings

A peptide is usually considered to be a linkage of 2 to 50 amino acids via peptide bonds, and proteins are larger than 50 or so amino acids.  In animal cells, peptides and...

By: Richard D. Cummings

O-GlcNAc is a major reversible modification of Ser/Thr residues found on thousands of intracellular glycoproteins in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and mitochondria, and links...

By: Richard D. Cummings

The disaccharide lactose, Galβ1-4Glc, is found only in the milk of mammals, and so far, it and extended milk oligosaccharides derived from it, are found nowhere else in nature...