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Glycobiology

Drifting toward polymer perfection

The addition of polysialic acid to proteins and cells is emerging as a promising therapeutic strategy. Polysialyltransferases synthesize polymers of widely varying lengths not optimal for therapeutic reagents, but the development of enzyme variants using neutral genetic drift offers a new way to overcome this problem.

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Figure 1: Processive and distributive polymerization mechanisms.

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Correspondence to Karen J Colley.

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Colley, K. Drifting toward polymer perfection. Nat Chem Biol 10, 410–411 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1506

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