GlyTouCan: an accessible glycan structure repository

Rapid and continued growth in the generation of glycomic data has revealed the need for enhanced development of basic infrastructure for presenting and interpreting these datasets in a manner that engages the broader biomedical research community. Early in their growth, the genomic and proteomic fields implemented mechanisms for assigning unique gene and protein identifiers that were essential for organizing data presentation and for enhancing bioinformatic approaches to extracting knowledge. Similar unique identifiers are currently absent from glycomic data. In order to facilitate continued growth and expanded accessibility of glycomic data, the authors strongly encourage the glycomics community to coordinate the submission of their glycan structures to the GlyTouCan Repository and to make use of GlyTouCan identifiers in their communications and publications. The authors also deeply encourage journals to recommend a submission workflow in which submitted publications utilize GlyTouCan identifiers as a standard reference for explicitly describing glycan structures cited in manuscripts.