Glycome Atlas
Glycome pillar
Glycan-bearing lipids that organize membranes, cell identity, recognition, and nervous-system signaling.
Cerebrosides are the simplest sugar-fats in the glycolipid family, with just one sugar (galactose or glucose) attached to a ceramide lipid. Galactose-bearing ones are especially abundant in the myelin that insulates nerves.
Read reviewed entryGangliosides are a special group of glycosphingolipids whose sugar chains carry one or more units of sialic acid, an acidic sugar that gives them a negative charge. They are especially plentiful in the brain and nerves, where they make up a large share of the sugar coating on nerve cell surfaces.
Read reviewed entryGlycolipids are fat molecules that have sugar chains attached to them. They sit in the outer surface of the cell membrane with the fatty part anchored in the membrane and the sugar part facing outward into the space around the cell, where it can be seen and touched by other cells.
Read reviewed entryGlycosphingolipids are the main type of glycolipid in animal cells. Each one is built from a fatty backbone called ceramide with a chain of sugars attached to one end. The ceramide part sits inside the cell membrane and the sugars point outward from the cell surface.
Read reviewed entryGM1 is a specific ganglioside, a sugar-bearing fat molecule that is especially common on nerve cell membranes. It has one sialic acid and a short chain of sugars attached to a ceramide lipid tail.
Read reviewed entryCell membranes are not uniform. Cholesterol and sugar-bearing fats can gather into small, more ordered patches often called lipid rafts. These patches concentrate certain proteins and help organize signals at the cell surface.
Read reviewed entry