The word, sialome, is a junction of the Greek word for saliva (sialos) and the suffix used in molecular biology to reference a totality of some sort, -ome. [1] [2] The name relating to its role in biochemistry.
In biochemistry, the term sialome may refer to two distinct concepts:
Thus, the sialome can refer to the totality of the salivary gland mRNA and proteins expressed by an organism, at a particular time and under specific cellular conditions.
Sialome can also refer to the total complement of sialic acid derivative modifications found at the terminal ends of glycan chains that cover the surfaces of proteins, organelles, and cells. These modifications can be found in vertebrates and more complex invertebrates, and consists of the anionic nine-carbon monosaccharide structure of sialic acid with various structural additions to the hydroxyl groups of the molecule resulting in various derivatives with varying chemical properties. The modifications are responsible for conferring proteins, organelles, and cells with physical and electrostatic properties to facilitate specific functions, like facilitating protein folding, cell transport, or mediate non specific interactions with other macromolecules or cells. [5]
Furthermore, the terminal saccharide in glycan chains can serve to function in specific ligand interactions with lectins(carbohydrate binding molecules), these lectins can originate from the host and can interact with the terminal saccharides of a glycan chain in a specific process or they can originate from pathogens and interact with terminal saccharides to aid in pathogen entry into cells. [5]
Protein biosynthesis is a core biological process, occurring inside cells, balancing the loss of cellular proteins through the production of new proteins. Proteins perform a number of critical functions as enzymes, structural proteins or hormones. Protein synthesis is a very similar process for both prokaryotes and eukaryotes but there are some distinct differences.
Glycomics is the comprehensive study of glycomes, including genetic, physiologic, pathologic, and other aspects. Glycomics "is the systematic study of all glycan structures of a given cell type or organism" and is a subset of glycobiology. The term glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or a sugar, "glyco-", and was formed to follow the omics naming convention established by genomics and proteomics.
Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide (sugar) chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycosylation. Secreted extracellular proteins are often glycosylated.
Defined in the narrowest sense, glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of saccharides that are widely distributed in nature. Sugars or saccharides are essential components of all living things and aspects of the various roles they play in biology are researched in various medical, biochemical and biotechnological fields.
A biomolecule or biological molecule is loosely defined as a molecule produced by a living organism and essential to one or more typically biological processes. Biomolecules include large macromolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids, as well as small molecules such as vitamins and hormones. A general name for this class of material is biological materials. Biomolecules are an important element of living organisms, those biomolecules are often endogenous, produced within the organism but organisms usually need exogenous biomolecules, for example certain nutrients, to survive.
Glycosylation is the reaction in which a carbohydrate, i.e. a glycosyl donor, is attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule in order to form a glycoconjugate. In biology, glycosylation usually refers to an enzyme-catalysed reaction, whereas glycation may refer to a non-enzymatic reaction.
A protein isoform, or "protein variant", is a member of a set of highly similar proteins that originate from a single gene and are the result of genetic differences. While many perform the same or similar biological roles, some isoforms have unique functions. A set of protein isoforms may be formed from alternative splicings, variable promoter usage, or other post-transcriptional modifications of a single gene; post-translational modifications are generally not considered. Through RNA splicing mechanisms, mRNA has the ability to select different protein-coding segments (exons) of a gene, or even different parts of exons from RNA to form different mRNA sequences. Each unique sequence produces a specific form of a protein.
An oligosaccharide is a saccharide polymer containing a small number of monosaccharides. Oligosaccharides can have many functions including cell recognition and cell adhesion.
The N-terminus (also known as the amino-terminus, NH2-terminus, N-terminal end or amine-terminus) is the start of a protein or polypeptide, referring to the free amine group (-NH2) located at the end of a polypeptide. Within a peptide, the amine group is bonded to the carboxylic group of another amino acid, making it a chain. That leaves a free carboxylic group at one end of the peptide, called the C-terminus, and a free amine group on the other end called the N-terminus. By convention, peptide sequences are written N-terminus to C-terminus, left to right (in LTR writing systems). This correlates the translation direction to the text direction, because when a protein is translated from messenger RNA, it is created from the N-terminus to the C-terminus, as amino acids are added to the carboxyl end of the protein.
Glycolipids are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a glycosidic (covalent) bond. Their role is to maintain the stability of the cell membrane and to facilitate cellular recognition, which is crucial to the immune response and in the connections that allow cells to connect to one another to form tissues. Glycolipids are found on the surface of all eukaryotic cell membranes, where they extend from the phospholipid bilayer into the extracellular environment.
The asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGPR) are lectins which bind asialoglycoprotein and glycoproteins from which a sialic acid has been removed to expose galactose residues. The receptors, which are integral membrane proteins and are located on mammalian hepatocytes, remove target glycoproteins from circulation. The asialoglycoprotein receptor has been demonstrated to have high expression on the surface of hepatocytes and several human carcinoma cell lines It is also weakly expressed by glandular cells of the gallbladder and the stomach. Lactobionic acid has been used as a targeting moiety for drug delivery to cells expressing asialoglycoprotein receptors.
Siglecs(Sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-type lectins) are cell surface proteins that bind sialic acid. They are found primarily on the surface of immune cells and are a subset of the I-type lectins. There are 14 different mammalian Siglecs, providing an array of different functions based on cell surface receptor-ligand interactions.
The mannose receptor is a C-type lectin primarily present on the surface of macrophages, immature dendritic cells and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, but is also expressed on the surface of skin cells such as human dermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes. It is the first member of a family of endocytic receptors that includes Endo180 (CD280), M-type PLA2R, and DEC-205 (CD205).
60S ribosomal protein L41 is a protein that is specific to humans and is encoded by the RPL41 gene, also known as HG12 and large eukaryotic ribosomal subunit protein eL41. The gene family HGNC is L ribosomal proteins. The protein itself is also described as P62945-RL41_HUMAN on the GeneCards database. This RPL41 gene is located on chromosome 12.
Viral neuraminidase is a type of neuraminidase found on the surface of influenza viruses that enables the virus to be released from the host cell. Neuraminidases are enzymes that cleave sialic acid groups from glycoproteins. Viral neuraminidase was discovered by Alfred Gottschalk at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1957. Neuraminidase inhibitors are antiviral agents that inhibit influenza viral neuraminidase activity and are of major importance in the control of influenza.
The eastern blot, or eastern blotting, is a biochemical technique used to analyze protein post-translational modifications including the addition of lipids, phosphates, and glycoconjugates. It is most often used to detect carbohydrate epitopes. Thus, eastern blot can be considered an extension of the biochemical technique of western blot. Multiple techniques have been described by the term "eastern blot(ting)", most use phosphoprotein blotted from sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gel on to a polyvinylidene fluoride or nitrocellulose membrane. Transferred proteins are analyzed for post-translational modifications using probes that may detect lipids, carbohydrate, phosphorylation or any other protein modification. Eastern blotting should be used to refer to methods that detect their targets through specific interaction of the post-translational modifications and the probe, distinguishing them from a standard far-western blot. In principle, eastern blotting is similar to lectin blotting.
Carbohydrate–protein interactions are the intermolecular and intramolecular interactions between protein and carbohydrate moieties. These interactions form the basis of specific recognition of carbohydrates by lectins. Carbohydrates are important biopolymers and have a variety of functions. Often carbohydrates serve a function as a recognition element. That is, they are specifically recognized by other biomolecules. Proteins which bind carbohydrate structures are known as lectins. Compared to the study of protein–protein and protein–DNA interaction, it is relatively recent that scientists get to know the protein–carbohydrate binding.
Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus that infects cats worldwide. It is a coronavirus of the species Alphacoronavirus 1, which includes canine coronavirus (CCoV) and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV). FCoV has two different forms: feline enteric coronavirus (FECV), which infects the intestines, and feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), which causes the disease feline infectious peritonitis (FIP).
O-linked glycosylation is the attachment of a sugar molecule to the oxygen atom of serine (Ser) or threonine (Thr) residues in a protein. O-glycosylation is a post-translational modification that occurs after the protein has been synthesised. In eukaryotes, it occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus and occasionally in the cytoplasm; in prokaryotes, it occurs in the cytoplasm. Several different sugars can be added to the serine or threonine, and they affect the protein in different ways by changing protein stability and regulating protein activity. O-glycans, which are the sugars added to the serine or threonine, have numerous functions throughout the body, including trafficking of cells in the immune system, allowing recognition of foreign material, controlling cell metabolism and providing cartilage and tendon flexibility. Because of the many functions they have, changes in O-glycosylation are important in many diseases including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. O-glycosylation occurs in all domains of life, including eukaryotes, archaea and a number of pathogenic bacteria including Burkholderia cenocepacia, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Acinetobacter baumannii.
GlycoRNAs are small non-coding RNAs with sialylated glycans.