Glycome
Glycome is the generic term for the collective identity of the entirety of carbohydrates in an organism.
It is reasonable to suppose that the word glycome has emerged as a consequence of the use of the words genome and proteome to which it is closely related.
An alternative definition is the collective identity of the entirety of carbohydrates in a cell.
In those definitions, the word sugar and the word glycan can be meaningfully substituted for carbohydrate.
The following article discusses the possibility of a 'Human Glycome Project'.
The article, called Glycobiology Goes to the Ball by Jeffrey M. Perkel, appeared in The Scientist on April the 29th 2002.
A classic quote from this article (given by Ajit Varki, professor of medicine and cell and molecular biology, and director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at the University of California, San Diego) which illustrates the scale of the glycome challenge, is that the glycome is:
"...probably thousands of times as complicated as the genome, in magnitude of complexity and level of diversity".
There is a body, called the Consortium for Functional Glycomics (CFG) funded by the (US) National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
This body (which operates in a field called Glycosciences) includes participants in 'glycome projects' within its remit.
The US Federal grant which can be said to have 'put the glycome on the political map' was described as a 'glue grant' of $34M (for the formation of the CFG, see above) described in this article from the 9th of October 2001.
An article, primarily aimed at discussing the technological aspects of the glycome challenge is 'The Sweet Spot' which talks about Glycominds who are founding commercial co-sponsors of the CFG.
Other terms which describe this field include glycomics, glycobiology.
Periodicals covering glycome projects
Glycome issues
- cellular adhesion
- cellular communication