What is the difference between glycoproteins and glycolipids?

Question

kainui · Answer

The difference in words here is protein and lipid. What are these? Proteins are structures made up of amino acids that and lipids are fats made up of a hydrophobic head and hydrophilic tail. I can elaborate on this more, but basically the difference is

A glycoprotein is a protien attached to a sugar and a glycolipid is a fat/oil molecule attached to a sugar.

If anything needs to be clarified just ask!

mayankdevnani · Answer

glycoproteins are carbohydrate-protein combinations.

glycolipids are carbohydrate-lipid combinations.

mayankdevnani · Answer

@nincompoop         there is nothing(generally) differ in their functions,, i describe you-

In general, glycolipids and glycoproteins both function in cell-cell recognition processes - but they operate through different recognition pathways.

And that is their only similarity. The glycolipids also function in energy storeage (glycoproteins do not) while glycoproteins (or rather the carbohydrate moiety attached to each protein) basically tag the protein for transport to different parts the cell.

So there is some general functional overlap between the two, but their differences are more significant than their similarities.