Customer Reviews

The Sugar Code: Fundamentals of Glycosciences

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This is a terrifically useful book that spans an enormous range of sugar-related topics in 30 relatively brief but authoritative chapters, each with a manageable number of key references. A major focus is the informational content of glycans and glycoconjugates (hence the book's title), but this theme is not overemphasized: there are also chapters on techniques for the analysis of these highly diverse molecules, their laboratory chemical synthesis and cellular biosynthesis, their metabolism, structural roles, folding motifs and pathological variants and disease associations. Classes of molecules covered include glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, and many more. The coding theme enters in full force with several chapters on lectins (a specialty of the editor, Hans-Joachim Gabius), animal and plant proteins that bind sugar-containing molecules with exquisite specificity. Despite its wide scope, the book reads more like monograph than a typical multi-authored compendium. This is due to the careful editing, which has produced stylistic coherence and didactic relevance. The artwork is clear and helpful, with a consistent style from chapter to chapter. The chapters are also cross-referential and contain fascinating "info boxes" (providing historical vignettes that give a sense of the paths of discovery in the field), and summary boxes. The volume can serve as the basis of graduate courses and as a handy source book for cell and developmental biologists, and pathologists. One hopes for future editions with some additional topics treated in the same accessible fashion: e.g., hyaluronan biosynthesis and function, non-enzymatic glycation in aging and disease, glycobiology of embryonic morphogenesis and organogenesis.