This chapter describes the current knowledge of archaeal glycobiology. As in bacteria and eukaryotes, the archaeal cell surface is covered with glycans, which serve as an essential part of the cell wall polysaccharides and as a modification of lipids or surface proteins, as well as the major component of the extracellular matrix. Recent discoveries shed light on a tremendous structural and functional diversity of carbohydrates in this domain of life. In particular, the pathways of N-linked protein glycosylation, homologous to the eukaryotic N-glycosylation machinery, generate a wide variety of N-linked glycans in different archaeal species.
Copyright © 2022 The Consortium of Glycobiology Editors, La Jolla, California; published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; doi:10.1101/glycobiology.4e.22. All rights reserved.