The glycome is the entire complement of sugars, whether free or present in more complex molecules, of an organism. An alternative definition is the entirety of carbohydrates in a cell. The glycome may in fact be one of the most complex entities in nature. Glycomics, analogous to genomics and proteomics, is the systematic study of all glycan structures of a given cell type or organism and is a subset of glycobiology. Glycans play a central role as potential mediators between complex cell societies, because all living organisms consist of cells covered with diverse carbohydrate chains reflecting various cell types and states. However, we have no idea how diverse these carbohydrate chains actually are. The main purpose of this article is to persuade life scientists to realize the fundamental importance of taking some action by becoming involved in "glycomics". "Glycome" is a term meaning the whole set of glycans produced by individual organisms, as the third bioinformative macromolecules to be elucidated next to the genome and proteome.
Related journal of glycome
Transcriptomics, Journal of Genetic Syndromes & Gene Therapy, Gene Technology, Journal of Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis, Glycobiology, Glycoconjugate Journal, Genomic Insights, Genome Mapping and Genomics in Animals, Genome Integrity
