The Mathematical Structure of Glycosylation in Living Cells

Glycans are highly variable and structurally diverse sugar chains that, when

attached to membrane proteins and lipids, are a dominant feature of the
mammalian cell surface. In contrast to protein structures, glycan structures
are not directly encoded in the genome.  Instead, the structure of glycans
is determined during their assembly in intracellular compartments through a
sequence of enzymatic reactions. The many thousands of glycan structures
found in cells result from the activities, concentrations, and localization
of a much smaller number of enzymes in different types of cells. In this
paper a previously developed mathematical model of the glycosylation process
is used to explore the structural and quantitative features of this complex
process.