Revisiting the Language of Glycoscience: Readers, Writers and Erasers in Carbohydrate Biochemistry

The roles of carbohydrates in nature are many and varied. However, the lack of template encoding in glycoscience distances carbohydrate structure, and hence function, from gene sequence. This challenging situation is compounded by descriptors of carbohydrate structure and function that have tended to emphasise their complexity. Herein, we suggest that revising the language of glycoscience could make interdisciplinary discourse more accessible to all interested parties.
The lack of template‐encoding in glycoscience disconnects the “glyco code” from direct gene sequence control. Thus carbohydrate biosynthesis and glycan function depend upon a series of protein–carbohydrate interaction events. Descriptions of these events have tended to emphasise their complexity: here we suggest that revising the language of glycoscience could make interdisciplinary discourse more accessible to all parties.