The current structural glycome landscape and emerging technologies

Carbohydrates represent one of the building blocks of life, along with nucleic acids, proteins and lipids. Although glycans are involved in a wide range of processes from embryogenesis to protein trafficking and pathogen infection, we are still a long way from deciphering the glycocode. In this review, we aim to present a few of the challenges that researchers working in the area of glycobiology can encounter and what strategies can be utilised to overcome them. Our goal is to paint a comprehensive picture of the current saccharide landscape available in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). We also review recently updated repositories relevant to the topic proposed, the impact of software development on strategies to structurally solve carbohydrate moieties, and state-of-the-art molecular and cellular biology methods that can shed some light on the function and structure of glycans.