Current techniques in protein glycosylation analysis - A guide to their application

The importance of glycosylation in biological events and the role it plays in glycoprotein function and structure is an area in which there is growing interest. In order to understand how glycosylation affects the shape or fu nction of a protein it is how ever important to have suitable techniques av ailable to obtain structural information on the oligosaccharides attached t o the protein. For many years the complexity of the structures required sop histicated analytical techniques only available to a few specialist laborat ories. In many cases these techniques were not available or required a larg e amount of material and therefore the number of glycoproteins which were f ully characterised were relatively few. In recent years there have been sub stantial developments in the analysis of glycosylation which has significan tly changed the capability to fully characterise molecules of biological in terest. A number of different techniques are available which differ in term s of their complexity, the amount of information which is available from th em, the skill needed to perform them and their cost. It is now possible for many laboratories who do not specialise in glycosylation analysis to obtai n some information although this may be incomplete. These developments do, however, also make complete characterisation of a glycoprotein a much less daunting task and in many cases this can be performed more easily and with less starting material than was previously required. In this review a summa ry will be given of current techniques and their suitability for different types of analysis will be considered.