A Holistic Approach to Glycolipid Function: Is the Lipid Moiety Important?

Abstract

The characteristic separation of purified glycolipids into doublets, triplets, etc. by thin layer chromatography barely raises an eyebrow in these days of recombinant chimeras, gene transfer, signal transduction, phosphorylation cascades etc. However, evidence is beginning to accrue that the mundane complexity which provides the base for membrane glycolipids may modulate the function of the carbohydrate moiety. The assay of glycolipid function on artificial surfaces and the ease and propensity with which carbohydrate sequences are cleaved from their natural conjoiners and coupled to more (or less) inert foreign carriers may result in the loss of the fine control in carbohydrate receptor function. Some recent experiments suggest that the fatty acid makes glycolipid carbohydrate receptor function at least several fold more complex then is apparent from consideration of the sugar sequence alone.