How do I obtain images for glycan structures?

There are two ways to obtain images for a GlyTouCan ID. If it is a new glycan that has not been processed yet by GlyCosmos, the converter page https://glycosmos.org/glycans/converter?method=wurcs2image has a form where images can be generated from WURCS. Otherwise, static images are available, such as https://image.glycosmos.org/snfg/png/G79042KA.

What is the subsumption hierarchy?

Subsumption refers to the relationship between five levels of glycan types registered in GlyCosmos. The top level is "Fully-defined saccharide" which is a glycan whose glycosidic linkage information (including anomeric configuration and the carbon numbers of the monosaccharides which are linked) are identified. The second level is "Linkage-defined saccharide" which is a glycan which contains at least one linkage with identified information. The third level is "Topology" which is a glycan whose linkages are known (i.e., the monosaccharides that are linked are identified), but linkage conformations are all unknown. The fourth level is "Monosaccharide composition" which contains just the number of monosaccharides (with known stereospecificity, such as galactose, or N-acetylglucosamine), but no linkages are specified. The fifth level is "Base composition" which contains just the number of base types such as hexose, deoxyhexose, etc. and no linkages are specified. There could be considered a sixth level, which would simply be the mass of the glycan.

What is the difference between the glycans registered in GlyTouCan and GlyCosmos Glycans?

Because of the registration process by which glycans are submitted to GlyTouCan, there exists the rare possibility that invalid glycans are registered. Thus, GlyCosmos Glycans are guaranteed to be the validated dataset of glycans extracted from GlyTouCan at the time of the update release of GlyCosmos.

What is the scope of the data in GlyCosmos and where does the data come from?

The source and date of retrieval of all data is available under at https://glycosmos.org/metadata.

Are there any tips or help on how to use GlyCosmos?

Please view the video available from TogoTV (available in both English and Japanese).

Is the data in GlyCosmos curated?

While there are no full-time curators working on GlyCosmos, the staff working on accumulating the data do check that the data being retrieved can be trusted.