Abstract
The glycan symbol nomenclature proposed by Harvey et al. in these pages has relative advantages and disadvantages. The use of symbols to depict glycans originated from Kornfeld in 1978, was systematized in the First Edition of "Essentials of Glycobiology" and updated for the second edition, with input from relevant organizations such as the Consortium for Functional Glycomics. We also note that >200 illustrations in the second edition have already been published using our nomenclature and are available for download at PubMed.