This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. C. elegans is one of the most thoroughly studied organisms for development, a process where carbohydrate recognition is important. Many databases exist for this organism. These include genomic, proteomic, expression, iRNA expression and anatomic databases. Databases such as the anatomic database are now being adopted to organize the anatomy of the organism as a hierarchy of tissue names and linking relationships within their tissue ontologies. Not only are whole organism data such as protein and RNA expression patterns now available, but such data is now being placed in the context of their expression throughout development in a tissue specific fashion. Currently, there is little information concerning the glycosylation and/or glycosylation patterns of specific proteins, glycolipids, or tissues, or throughout development. Since databases are now available that link protein and expression information to the stages of development and tissue location, the documentation of specific glycoprotein, glycolipid and tissue glycosylation patterns is now especially warranted. This project intends to document the glycosylation patterns found in glycoproteins using an LC-MS proteomics approach. The analysis of glycoproteins will provide tissue specific glycosylation information, as tissue specific protein expression databases exist for this organism. We will also continue to catalogue N-glycan, O-glycans and glycolipids in this organism with special attention to characteristic fragmentation patterns. The fragmentation patterns will be analysed for specific rules that apply in subsets of related compounds. These rules will aid in the structural assignment of compounds across species, as, C. elegans produces many glycans that are conserved in higher eukaryotes. C. elegans also contains novel glycoconjugates and, thus, rules that result from the study of these novel compounds may provide new insights for fragmentation mechanisms, patterns and ion chemistry in general. As data are accumulated it will be deposited into databases and software developed for their use.
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