Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the lipid modulation of glycosphingolipid (GSL) receptors, and explains that this modulation of GSLs and their membrane environment have major effects on GSL receptor function. These include modulation of binding, selection of ligand-binding sites, multivalency, cooperativity, and intracellular trafficking. The near universal heterogeneity of the GSL aglycone and the growing appreciation of GSL-containing membrane microdomain hetereogeneity suggest that a structural understanding of GSL-mediated-signal transduction will be achieved no time soon. In order for multivalency of the receptor to be important, the ligand must also be multivalent. The binding of Verotoxin to its glycolipid receptor Gb3 is one of the highest affinity protein–carbohydrate interactions known. The synthesis of soluble glycolipid mimics of globotriaosyl ceramide and sulfogalactosyl ceramide (sulfatide) is also discussed.
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