Protein Glycosylation in Heterogeneous Expression Systems.

Glycosylation the addition of sugar residues to peptide backbone is the most common post-translational modification of proteins in eukaryotic cells and has important functions in secretion antigenicity and metabolism of glycoproteins. Majority of proteins of pharmaceutical interest are glycoproteins. In recent years great advances have been made in understanding the versatile biological functions of carbohydrates in the accurate analysis of glycoprotein heterogeneity and in controlling the biosynthetic pathways of glycosylation. The aim of this mini review is to discuss general advantages and potential problems of different systems for expressing recombinant glycoproteins.