Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States; Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States.
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2021;144:377-408. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2021.02.001. Epub 2021 Apr 16.
Establishment of neural circuits requires reproducible and precise interactions between growing axons, dendrites and their tissue environment. Cell adhesion molecules and guidance factors are involved in the process, but how specificity is achieved remains poorly understood. Glycans are the third major class of biopolymers besides nucleic acids and proteins, and are usually covalently linked to proteins to form glycoconjugates. Common to most glycans is an extraordinary level of molecular diversity, making them attractive candidates to contribute specificity during neural development. Indeed, many genes important for neural development encode glycoproteins, or enzymes involved in synthesizing or modifying glycans. Glycoconjugates are classified based on both the types of glycans and type of attachment that link them to proteins. Here I discuss progress in understanding the function of glycans, glycan modifications and glycoconjugates during neural development in Caenorhabditis elegans. I will also highlight relevance to human disease and known roles of glycoconjugates in regeneration.
建立神经网络回路需要生长轴突、树突及其组织环境之间可重复且精确的相互作用。细胞粘附分子和导向因子参与了这个过程，但特异性是如何实现的仍知之甚少。聚糖是继核酸和蛋白质之后的第三大类生物聚合物，通常通过共价键与蛋白质结合形成糖缀合物。大多数聚糖的一个共同特点是具有非凡的分子多样性，这使它们成为在神经发育过程中发挥特异性的有吸引力的候选物。事实上，许多对神经发育重要的基因编码糖蛋白，或参与合成或修饰聚糖的酶。糖缀合物的分类依据是连接它们的聚糖类型和与蛋白质的连接类型。在这里，我将讨论在秀丽隐杆线虫中理解聚糖、聚糖修饰和糖缀合物在神经发育中的功能的进展。我还将强调其与人类疾病的相关性以及糖缀合物在再生中的已知作用。
