Glycoprotein analysis using protein microarrays and mass spectrometry

Protein glycosylation plays an important role in a multitude of biological processes such as cell–cell recognition, growth, differentiation, and cell death. It has been shown that specific glycosylation changes are key in disease progression and can have diagnostic value for a variety of disease types such as cancer and inflammation. The complexity of carbohydrate structures and their derivatives makes their study a real challenge. Improving the isolation, separation, and characterization of carbohydrates and their glycoproteins is a subject of increasing scientific interest. With the development of new stationary phases and molecules that have affinity properties for glycoproteins, the isolation and separation of these compounds have advanced significantly. In addition to detection with mass spectrometry, the microarray platform has become an essential tool to characterize glycan structure and to study glycosylation-related biological interactions, by using probes as a means to interrogate the spotted or captured glycosylated molecules on the arrays. Furthermore, the high-throughput and reproducible nature of microarray platforms have been highlighted by its extensive applications in the field of biomarker validation, where a large number of samples must be analyzed multiple times. This review covers a brief survey of the other experimental methodologies that are currently being developed and used to study glycosylation and emphasizes methodologies that involve the use of microarray platforms. This review describes recent advances in several options of microarray platforms used in glycoprotein analysis, including glycoprotein arrays, glycan arrays, lectin arrays, and antibody/lectin arrays. The translational use of these arrays in applications related to characterization of cells and biomarker discovery is also included. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 29:830–844, 2010Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77969/1/20269_ftp.pd

Climatic Implications of Terrestrial Arthropods from the Parachute Creek Member (Middle Eocene), Green River Formation, Garfield County, Colorado

In an attempt to determine if fossil insects could be used for paleoclimatic determinations, a portion of the Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation in Western Colorado was trenched and all fossils were collected. The study area is located in Sec’s. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, T55, R101W and 31, 32, 33, T4S, R101W. The Parachute Creek Member is a finely carved shale measuring 69 m thick in the study area. The Parachute Creek Member overlies and interfingers with the Douglas Creek Member of the Green River Formation. Seven orders of insects were collected all representing extant orders. These insects represent 44 genera of which 14 are extant. All species are extinct. The extant genera of Diptera and Coleoptera were used to determine the paleoclimatic conditions at the time of deposition by using the ranges of extant species as representative of the extinct species ranges. This data was then compared to results obtained from paleobotancial research. Modern representatives of these genera range from the Arctic to Central America and overlap primarily in the Texas-Mexico region. These ranges suggest that the paleoclimatic conditions at the time of Parachute Creek Member deposition, were a regime like that found around an intermontane, lake existing at the latitude of Texas-northern Mexico. This paleoclimatic interpretation is in agreement with that derived from paleobotanical data. This agreement indicates that Tertiary insect faunas may be useful in the determination of paleoclimatic regimes