The books described marine glycoconjugates. Two articles concern microalgal metabolites such as steroid and sphingoid glycoconjugates, and a glycoprotein from a sea cucumber with interesting biological activities, respectively. One article discusses the fatty acid composition and thermotropic behavior of glycolipids and other membrane lipids of green macrophyte Ulva lactuca. Three articles cover lectin subjects. One review article analyzes perspectives of marine and freshwater lectins’ application in experimental oncology and the therapy of oncological diseases; another article describes the use of a sponge lectin in the construction of a recombinant virus. The third article concerns the function of the immunity of a lectin in producing this compound crinoid. Two articles concern steroid glycosides from starfish, and two others concern triterpene glycosides from sea cucumbers. One article describes the effect of a glycosaminoglycan from the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus on hyperglycemia in the liver of insulin-resistant mice. One article concerns the isolation of 10 new triterpene glycosides from a fungus associated with a sea cucumber. The article by Dworaczek et al. characterizes the O-specific polysaccharide (O-antigen) of a bacterial pathogen of common carp by chemical and immunochemical methods. In total, the Special Issue comprises14 articles, including the editorial and two reviews.
Marine glycobiology is an emerging and exciting area in the field of science and medicine. Glycobiology, the study of the structure and function of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-containing molecules, is fundamental to all biological systems and represents a developing field of science that has made huge advances in the last half-century. This book revolutionizes the concept of marine glycobiology, focusing on the latest principles and applications of marine glycobiology and their relationships.
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the publication of papers on the chemistry, biology, and potential clinical uses of marine glycosides. Indeed, more than half of the papers published in this field are less than a decade old. Glycosides have been isolated from species as diverse as algae, fungi, anthozoans, and echinoderms. Even fish of the genus Pardachirus produce glycosides, which they use as shark repellents.The major interest in these compounds as potential drugs stems from their broad spectrum of biological effects. They have been shown to have antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, immune modulatory, and anticancer effects. The anticancer effects of marine glycosides include cell cycle suppression, the induction of apoptosis, and the inhibition of migration, invasion, and metastasis, as well as antiangiogenesis. Marine glycosides influence membrane permeability and have been shown to influence membrane transport at the molecular level through effects on transport carriers and pumps, as well as effects on ligand-gated and voltage-gated channels. Various marine glycosides have been shown to activate sphingomyelinase and ceramide synthesis, to inhibit topoisomerase activity, receptor tyrosine kinase activity, and multidrug resistance protein activity, and to antagonize eicosanoid receptors.This Special Issue covers the entire scope of marine organism-derived glycosides that are of potential value as pharmaceutical agents or leads. These include, but are not limited to, tetracyclic triterpene glycosides, other triterpene glycosides, steroid glycosides, and glycosides of non-isoprenoid aglycones.
Sugar chains (glycans) are often attached to proteins and lipids and have multiple roles in the organization and function of all organisms. "Essentials of Glycobiology" describes their biogenesis and function and offers a useful gateway to the understanding of glycans.
A new focus on glycoscience, a field that explores the structures and functions of sugars, promises great advances in areas as diverse as medicine, energy generation, and materials science, this report finds. Glycans-also known as carbohydrates, saccharides, or simply as sugars-play central roles in many biological processes and have properties useful in an array of applications. However, glycans have received little attention from the research community due to a lack of tools to probe their often complex structures and properties. Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future presents a roadmap for transforming glycoscience from a field dominated by specialists to a widely studied and integrated discipline, which could lead to a more complete understanding of glycans and help solve key challenges in diverse fields.
This book serves as a much-needed guide for new investigators in the field of glycobiology as well as researchers in other disciplines attempting to define the role of glycoconjugates in their biological systems. Cell Surface and Extracellular Glycoconjugates: Structure and Function describes the determination of structure and function of glycoconjugates that occur on the cell surface and in molecules involved in cell-matrix interactions. The broad scope of thebook covers basic background and technical information in this rapidly expanding field. The text is specifically designed to inform researchers in diverse disciplines of the approaches and resources that can be employed to address problems in glycoconjugate biology. - Structure of cell surface carbohydrates - Biosynthesis of glycoproteins - Biological signals associated with glycoproteins - Diversity of glycoprotein structure
Glycoconjugate Research, Volume II contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Glycoconjugates held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1977. The papers explore the biosynthesis and regulation of glycoconjugates, particularly those of cell membranes, and glycolipid storage diseases. This volume is comprised of 95 chapters divided into three sections. After reviewing the regulatory mechanisms underlying glycoprotein synthesis, it turns to enzymic modifications of sialic acids in the course of glycoconjugate biosynthesis. The following chapters focus on the biosynthesis and characterization of lipid-linked sugars in the outer membrane of liver mitochondria; effect of bacitracin on the biosynthesis of dolichol derivatives in calf pancreas microsomes; secretion of proteoglycans by chondrocytes; and heterogeneity of arterial proteoglycans. The biosynthesis of elastin by chondroblasts in monolayer cultures is also considered, along with the phosphorylation of proteoglycans in human articular cartilage. The final chapter describes a double-antibody radioimmunoassay for soluble and cell-surface blood group Ii antigens. This book will be a useful resource for biochemists.
Oceans include the greatest extremes of pressure, temperature and light, and habitats can range from tropical waters to ocean trenches, several kilometers below sea level at high pressure. With its 70% of the surface of our planet marine ecosystem still remains largely unexplored, understudied and underexploited in comparison with terrestrial ecosystems, organisms and bioprocesses. The biological adaptation of marine organisms to a wide range of environmental conditions in the specific environment (temperature, salinity, tides, pressure, radiation, light, etc.) has made them an enormous reservoir of interesting biological material for both basic research and biotechnological improvements. As a consequence marine ecosystem is valued as a source of enzymes and other biomolecules exhibiting new functions and activities to fulfill human needs. Indeed, in recent years it has been recognised as an untapped source of novel enzymes and metabolites even though, with regard to the assignment of precise biological functions to genes, proteins and enzymes, it is still considered as the least developed. Using metagenomics to recover genetic material directly from environmental samples, this biogenetic diversification can be accessed but despite the contributions from metagenomic technologies the new field requires major improvements. A few words on the complexity of marine environments should be added here. This complexity ranges from symbiotic relationships to biology and chemistry of defence mechanisms and from chemoecology of marine invasions up to the strategies found in prokaryotes to adapt to extreme environments. The interdisciplinary study of this complexity will enable researchers to find an arsenal of enzymes and pathways greatly demanded in biotechnological applications. As far as marine enzymes are concerned they may carry novel chemical and stereochemical properties, thus biocatalytically oriented studies (testing of suitable substrates, appropriate checking of reaction conditions, study of stereochemical asset of catalysis) should be performed to appropriately reveal this “chemical biodiversity” which increases interest for these enzymes. Among other biomolecules, polysaccharides are the most abundant renewable biomaterial found on land and in oceans. Their molecular diversity is very interesting; except polysaccharides used traditionally in food and non-food industries, the structure and the functionality of most of them are unknown and unexplored. Brown seaweeds synthesize unique bioactive polysaccharides: laminarans, alginic acids and fucoidans. A wide range of biological activities (anticoagulant, antitumor, antiviral, anti-inflammation, etc.) have been attributed to fucoidans and their role with respect to structure-activity relationship is still under debate. In this Research Topic, we wish to centralize and review contributions, idea and comments related to the issues above. In particular results of enzymatic bioprospecting in gross marine environment will be acknowledged along with research for structural characterization and biological function of biomolecules such as marine polysaccharides and all kind of research related to the complexity of bioprocesses in marine environments. Inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to this field is favoured in this Research Topic and could greatly be facilitated by the web and open access nature as well.
