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a) Glycan
　糖鎖とは糖が鎖状に連なったものです。 この糖鎖はタンパク質や細胞の膜を構成している脂質の表面に結合し、その働きを左右しています。 最近ではグライコーム研究が進められています。グライコームとはグライコとオームが合体してできた言葉であり、 グライコは「糖鎖」、オームは「全体」を表すラテン語です。木下研究室では糖鎖の全体像の解明に努めています。

b) Roles ・ importance of carbohydrates [1]
　Glycans may be analogized to access card readers to cells by which proteins function as cards containing access codes. Glycans decorate the surface of cells either directly or on cell surface protein such that othe biomolecules such as viruses, bacteria, pathogens and othe proteins may recognize the appropriate structures to bind to the target cells. The difficulty is that the glycans are flexible, and that depending on the environment, the structures of day, for example. Thus proteins are allowed access only when the right conditions are met. In biological terms, the functions of many proteins are affected by glycan structure conformations which are governed by environmental conditions, thus enphasizing the inportance of glycans and their functions on proteins.
　In general, there are two broad categories into which the biological roles of glycans may be divided.

（1）The structural and modulatory properties of glycans.

（2）The specific recognition of glycans by other molecules, which include glycan-binding proteins(GBPs).


　There are two types of GBPs.

① Intrinsic：referring to those that recognize glycans within the same organism.
　・function to mediate cell-cell interactions
　・function to recognize extracellular molecules
　※They may also recognize glycans on the same cell. 　 　

画像；http://www.riken.jp/r-world/info/release/news/2010/nov/frol_01.html から

② Extrinsic：referring to those that recognize glycans from a different organism.
　・pathogenic microbes
　・toxins
　・molecules mediating symbiotic relationships　　　etc...

　These contrary roles of glycan recognition are suggested to act as opposing selective forces, which conosequently affect evolutionry changes in biological systems！


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　/*糖鎖の働きは赤血球だけではなく、体中の細胞に表れており、ガンや免疫、ホルモンの働き等にも関与しています。
*/