Editorial [ Glycosyltransferases-Part-I Guest Editor: Subhash Basu ]

Glycoconjugates (glycolipids, glycoproteins and proteoglycans) are ubiquitous on eukaryotic cell surfaces. Isolation, chemical structure determinations, and characterization of individual Glycosyl-transferases for their biosynthesis took almost 4 decades (until the early 1990's) of hard work by endless glycobiochemists and glycobiologists around the world. From 1986 until now putative gene sequences of almost 300 glycosyltransferases have been established. Each glycoconjugate is characterized by its unique structure synthesized by activities of a group of specific glycosyltransferases. It is nearly established that a specific linkage (between two sugars) is established by the catalysis of a specific gene product (or a glycosyltransferase) as proposed by Professor Saul Roseman in early 1970's; sometimes with little variation of gene sequence, a different linkage formation is also catalyzed as observed recently. However, many questions remain unanswered: i) what are the active sites of these enzymes present in the protein sequences? ii) How are these enzymes transcriptionally regulated? iii) How are these glycosyltransferases post-translationally modified and regulated? iv) How are these glycosyltransferases regulated in apoptotic and metastatic cells? When our chief editor contacted me two years ago to edit an issue on “Glycosyltransferases” in this new well-rated journal, I agreed to do so, keeping these questions in my mind. At first I had to identify all those excellent scientists who are actively contributing in this field of “Glycosyltransferases” and secondly to propose to each individual author (also with their active collaborators) to write an article wherein, with their expertise, they could write for the interested readers the latest words in which that area in which they are working. Finally, after one year of negotiations I received 13 well-written articles from the experts in the field, which covered some of the questions raised earlier. We decided to publish these thirteen articles in two volumes. Of course many active researchers in this field were unable to contribute in these two volumes. To maintain the high standard of this journal I went through every line of each article and checked almost every reference so that it is correctly quoted in the right place; of course this was a time consuming task for one person. Finally, I am able to release the first volume of the “Glycosyltransferases” in this journal, with six papers to the press, and we are almost ready within a few months to send to press the all other 7 articles to be printed in the second volume. A total list of all the accepted all 13 articles will be printed in both the volumes. I am happy to accept the responsibility as a special editor for these two volumes. The chief editor is my good friend for 37 years who requested me to edit and I am also expecting to have a few more new friends for rest of my life after these two volumes are published.