Natural sugars come in many varieties, which makes it difficult to sort out their biological activity. Puvirajesinghe et al. took the concept of a glycoarray, in which glycan libraries are spotted on a slide to screen for glycan-protein interactions, and adapted it to detect a functional readout of cell signaling. The group immobilized oriented glycans on aminosilane-coated glass slides and overlaid them with sulfate-deficient mouse fibroblasts in the presence of FGF2 ligand. Subsequent antibody staining and conventional imaging identified a downstream phosphorylation event that revealed which glycans promote FGF signaling. Using this functional glycomics approach, the group confirmed that two known heparin saccharides can activate the signaling pathway.
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Functional glycoarrays. Nat Methods 9, 644 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2087
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2087