Reviews & Perspectives
Recent Advances in Software Tools for More Generic and Precise Intact Glycopeptide Analysis
In Brief This article provides a systematic review of the most recent MS-based strategies and corresponding software tools for the analysis of intact glycopeptides, particularly intact N-glycopeptides, reported in the last decade, including the process of identifying N-glycopeptides from MS data, the existing methods of MS data acquisition and interpretation, the quality control methods, the display of results, and the software applications.Developments in Mass Spectrometry for Glycosaminoglycan Analysis: A Review
In Brief Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) participate in a variety of biological functions and have a multitude of medicinal properties. Due to their non template driven biosynthesis, GAGs are produced as nonuniform complex mixtures. Mass spectrometry paired with on-line separation techniques has been utilized to determine the composition of these complex mixtures. Advances in tandem mass spectrometry have also made determining sequence information such as sulfation location and C-5 epimerization possible. This review covers recent developments in the analysis of GAGs using mass spectrometry.Meta-heterogeneity: Evaluating and Describing the Diversity in Glycosylation Between Sites on the Same Glycoprotein
In Brief Diversity in protein glycosylation can be described in terms of micro-heterogeneity and macro-heterogeneity, respectively, referring to the variation and occupancy of glycans at a given glycosylation site. However, these terms are not sufficient to describe a higher level of regulation when proteins are multiply glycosylated. For this, we propose the term meta-heterogeneity: variation in glycosylation across multiple sites of a given glycoprotein. In this review, we describe several remarkable examples of glycoprotein meta-heterogeneity and underline the need for its investigation.
