Glyco-Signaling Pathways

The most important modification of proteins, particularly membrane proteins, is glycosylation, which affects the three dimensional structure of proteins and is of particular importance in protein-protein interactions such as those between protein ligands and their cognate receptor molecules. Many secreted proteins, such as hormones or cytokines, are glycosylated, which impacts their activity when they bind to their receptors. These alterations affect recruiting, interaction, activity and cell signaling. Receptor signaling is regulated by glycosylation and plays a key role in determining the cellular responses to environmental and other exogenous signals, including cell to cell interactions.