I was having a first look at the Glycoscience Newsgroup, and came across an interesting
question from Martin Dalziel regarding the role of secreted transferases.
We have been working on the sialyltransferases in bovine colostrum. What puzzles me is
that sialy(2,3)lactose and sialyl(2,6)lactose are present at similar amounts in
colostrum, yet only the sialyl(2,6)transferase activity is present when monitored using
lactose acceptors. Why would the enzyme responsible for the 2,3-lnked trisaccharide be
essentially absent? Or perhaps the question is why would the 2,6-transferase be
released while the 2,3-transferase is not?
Martin...did you receive any worthwhile responses?
Richard Furneaux
Industrial Research Limited
New Zealand
