As letters form the vocabulary of a language, biochemical ‘symbols’ (the building blocks of oligo- and polymers) make writing molecular messages possible. Compared to nucleotides and amino acids, sugars have chemical properties that facilitate to reach an unsurpassed level of oligomer diversity. These glycans are a part of the ubiquitous cellular glycoconjugates. Cyto- and histochemically, the glycans’ structural complexity is mapped by glycophenotyping of cells and tissues using receptors (‘readers’, thus called lectins), hereby revealing its dynamic spatiotemporal regulation: these data support the concept of a sugar code. When proceeding from work with plant (haem)agglutinins as such tools to the discovery of endogenous (tissue) lectins, it became clear that a broad panel of biological meanings can indeed be derived from the sugar-based vocabulary (the natural glycome incl. post-synthetic modifications) by glycan-lectin recognition in situ. As consequence, the immunocyto- and histochemical analysis of lectin expression is building a solid basis for the steps toward tracking down functional correlations, for example in processes leading to cell adhesion, apoptosis, autophagy or growth regulation as well as targeted delivery of glycoproteins. Introduction of labeled tissue lectins to glycan profiling assists this endeavor by detecting counterreceptor(s) in situ. Combining these tools and their applications strategically will help to take the trip toward the following long-range aim: to compile a dictionary for the glycan vocabulary that translates each message (oligosaccharide) into its bioresponse(s), that is to crack the sugar code.

由于字母构成了语言的词汇，生化“符号”（寡聚物和聚合物的组成部分）使书写分子信息成为可能。与核苷酸和氨基酸相比，糖具有有助于达到无与伦比的低聚物多样性水平的化学特性。这些聚糖是普遍存在的细胞糖复合物的一部分。在细胞和组织化学上，聚糖的结构复杂性通过使用受体（“读取器”，因此称为凝集素）对细胞和组织进行糖表型分析来绘制，从而揭示了其动态时空调节：这些数据支持糖代码的概念。当从使用植物（血红素）凝集素作为工具到发现内源（组织）凝集素时，很明显，一系列广泛的生物学意义确实可以从基于糖的词汇（天然糖组包括后）中衍生出来。 -合成修饰）通过聚糖-凝集素原位识别。因此，凝集素表达的免疫细胞和组织化学分析正在为追踪功能相关性的步骤奠定坚实的基础，例如导致细胞粘附、凋亡、自噬或生长调节以及糖蛋白靶向递送的过程。将标记的组织凝集素引入聚糖分析可通过原位检测反受体来协助这一努力。战略性地结合这些工具及其应用将有助于实现以下长期目标：编写聚糖词汇词典，将每条信息（寡糖）翻译成其生物反应，即破解糖代码。