Glycoproteins and Proteoglycans

Abstract

N-Linked glycosylation involves en bloc transfer of preformed glycans through a β-linkage to the side-chain nitrogen of asparagine. The N-linked glycans possess complex and diverse structures dependent on their origin, when they are initially added to growing peptides; these glycans share a common 14 sugar oligosaccharide. One particularly well-understood pathway to N-linked glycoprotein synthesis is one that occurs upon infection of mammalian cells with vesicular stomatis virus (VSV). Infection with this virus results in cooption of essentially all of the cell's protein synthesis apparatus to produce a single homogeneous viral coat glycoprotein, the VSV G-protein, thereby providing a useful..