The key difference between glycosylation and glycosidation is that glycosylation is the process that attaches a carbohydrate to a protein or a lipid molecule while glycosidation is the process of forming a glycoside.
Glycosylation and glycosidation are two important processes occurring in living organisms. Both glycosylation and glycosidation involve sugar or carbohydrates. During glycosylation, carbohydrates attach with other organic molecules such as proteins or lipids while glycosides formation takes place during glycosidation.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Glycosylation
3. What is Glycosidation
4. Similarities Between Glycosylation and Glycosidation
5. Side by Side Comparison – Glycosylation vs Glycosidation in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is Glycosylation?
Glycosylation is an enzymatic process that attaches carbohydrate or a glycan to proteins, or other organic molecules such as lipids. The reaction takes place between a glycosyl donor and a glycosyl acceptor, and glycosyltransferases mainly catalyze the reaction between them. Moreover, glycosylation is an important process in proteins (protein glycosylation) to increase their functional properties; it increases protein diversity or the proteome as well. Majority of proteins undergo glycosylation at the rough endoplasmic reticulum and become glycoproteins. Glycosylation especially helps proteins to fold correctly. Moreover, glycosylation makes protein stable when linked with oligosaccharides and facilitates signalling and cell to cell adhesion.
Figure 01: N-linked Protein Glycosylation
Furthermore, glycosylation is a type of post-translational modification that occurs in proteins. It involves a series of enzymatic steps. N-linked glycosylation, O-linked glycosylation, phosphoserine glycosylation, C-mannosylation and glypiation are several types of glycosylations. Also, the reverse reaction of the glycosylation is deglycosylation. Therefore, deglycosylation refers to the enzymatic reaction of removing glycans from proteins.
What is Glycosidation?
Glycosidation is the formation of glycosides. Glycosides are a wide variety of naturally occurring substances. There is a carbohydrate portion combined with a hydroxyl compound via a glycosidic bond in the glycoside. It is a covalent bond. Therefore, a substance that contains a glycosidic bond is a glycoside, and the glycosidation is the formation process of glycosides.
Figure 02: Glycosidation
In fact, glycosidation is a type of modification of sugar molecules. Removing an aldehyde or ketone group is one way of glycosidation. Therefore, this can be done by reacting the sugar with either alcohol or amines.
What are the Similarities Between Glycosylation and Glycosidation?
- In both processes, a carbohydrate molecule is in an interaction with another molecule.
- Both are important biochemical processes occurring in living organisms.
What is the Difference Between Glycosylation and Glycosidation?
Glycosylation converts a carbohydrate into a glycoprotein or glycolipid while glycosidation converts a carbohydrate into a glycoside. Therefore, glycosylation is the enzymatic reaction that attaches a carbohydrate with another organic compound such as protein or lipid. On the other hand, glycosidation is the formation of a glycoside by forming a glycosidic bond. So, this is the key difference between glycosylation and glycosidation.
Summary – Glycosylation vs Glycosidation
In summarizing the difference between glycosylation and glycosidation, glycosylation is an enzymatic process that links a carbohydrate or a glycan to proteins, or other organic molecules such as lipids. Glycosidation is the process that forms glycosides by forming a glycosidic bond between carbohydrate and a hydroxyl compound, especially with an alcohol or amines.
Reference:
1. “Glycosylation: Thermo Fisher Scientific – US.” Glycosylation | Thermo Fisher Scientific – US, Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Glicoprotein” By Kosi Gramatikoff, User:Stannered – en:Image:Glicoprotein.jp (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Ethyl-glucoside” By AxelBoldt at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Common Good using CommonsHelper (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia