Collaboration explores the role of N-glycans during vertebrate development
A collaboration with the lab of Norman Dovichi at the University of Notre Dame explores the role of N-glycans in biological processes during vertebrate development. In a recent publication, Quantitative Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry Reveals the N-glycome Developmental Plan during Vertebrate Embryogenesis, they report on the first quantitative studies of both the expression of N-linked glycans at six early development stages and the expression of N-glycosylated peptides at two early development stages in the African clawed frog. In the study, N-Glycans were labeled with isobaric tandem mass tags and characterized using tandem mass spectrometry. Over two thirds of the N-glycoproteins identified in the late stage were associated with neuron projection morphogenesis, suggesting a vital role of the N-glycome in neuronal development.