No more sugar-coating it: Mucins and platelet biology

Abstract

In this issue of Blood, Kudo et al demonstrate a critical role for mucin-type O-glycans in terminal differentiation of megakaryocytes and platelet release, using conditional knockout mouse for the catalytic enzyme for O-glycosylation. This article provides a model for understanding what role such near ubiquitous modifiers may have in terminal hematopoietic differentiation.