Glycosylation is the most abundant and diverse form of post-translational modification of proteins that is common to all eukaryotic cells. Enzymatic glycosylation of proteins involves a complex metabolic network and different types of glycosylation pathways that orchestrate enormous amplification of the proteome in producing diversity of proteoforms and its biological functions. The tremendous structural diversity of glycans attached to proteins poses analytical challenges that limit exploration of specific functions of glycosylation. Major advances in quantitative transcriptomics, proteomics and nuclease-based gene editing are now opening new global ways to explore protein glycosylation through analysing and targeting enzymes involved in glycosylation processes. In silico models predicting cellular glycosylation capacities and glycosylation outcomes are emerging, and refined maps of the glycosylation pathways facilitate genetic approaches to address functions of the vast glycoproteome. These approaches apply commonly available cell biology tools, and we predict that use of (single-cell) transcriptomics, genetic screens, genetic engineering of cellular glycosylation capacities and custom design of glycoprotein therapeutics are advancements that will ignite wider integration of glycosylation in general cell biology.

糖基化是所有真核细胞共有的蛋白质翻译后修饰的最丰富和最多样化的形式。蛋白质的酶促糖基化涉及复杂的代谢网络和不同类型的糖基化途径，这些途径协调蛋白质组的巨大扩增，以产生蛋白质型的多样性及其生物学功能。附着在蛋白质上的聚糖的巨大结构多样性带来了分析挑战，限制了对糖基化特定功能的探索。定量转录组学、蛋白质组学和基于核酸酶的基因编辑方面的重大进展现在开辟了新的全球途径，通过分析和靶向糖基化过程中涉及的酶来探索蛋白质糖基化。预测细胞糖基化能力和糖基化结果的计算机模型正在出现，糖基化途径的精细图谱促进了解决大量糖蛋白组功能的遗传方法。这些方法应用了常用的细胞生物学工具，我们预测使用（单细胞）转录组学、遗传筛选、细胞糖基化能力的基因工程和糖蛋白疗法的定制设计是进步，将点燃糖基化在一般细胞生物学中的更广泛整合.