Bioinformatics for glycomics: status, methods, requirements and perspectives.

The term 'glycomics' describes the scientific attempt to identify and study all the glycan molecules - the glycome - synthesised by an organism. The aim is to create a cell-by-cell catalogue of glycosyltransferase expression and detected glycan structures. The current status of databases and bioinformatics tools, which are still in their infancy, is reviewed.

GlycoFragment and GlycoSearchMS: web tools to support the interpretation of mass spectra of complex carbohydrates.

In recent years, mass spectrometry has become the method of choice for high-sensitivity glycan identification. Currently, only a few tools assisting mass spectra interpretation are available. The web application GlycoFragment (www.