Sequence Representation
Owing to the lack of a genetic blue print, carbohydrates do not have a "fixed" sequence. Instead, the sequence is largely determined by the kinetic differences in the enzymes and variations in the biosynthetic micro-environment of the cells.
One of the main constrains in the glycoinformatics is the difficulty of representing sugars in the sequence form especially due to their branching nature.
The sequence of branching information in a carbohydrate molecule is represented in the figure.
Read more about this topic: Glycoinformatics
Famous quotes containing the word sequence:
“Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography.... For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what makes up the continuous flow of life. Here, I am talking of a space, of moments and discontinuities. For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form—it may be called fleeting or eternal—is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)