The carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndromes (CDGS) are a group of autosomal recessive multisystemic diseases characterized by defective glycosylation of N-glycans. This review describes recent findings on two patients with CDGS type II. In contrast to CDGS type I, the type II patients show a more severe psychomotor retardation, no peripheral neuropathy and a normal cerebellum. The CDGS type II serum transferrin isoelectric focusing pattern shows a large amount (95%) of disialotransferrin in which each of the two glycosylation sites is occupied by a truncated monosialo-monoantennary N-glycan. Fine structure analysis of this glycan suggested a defect in the Golgi enzyme UDP-GlcNAc:alpha-6-D-mannoside beta-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II (GnT II; EC 2.4.1.143) which catalyzes an essential step in the biosynthetic pathway leading from hybrid to complex N-glycans. GnT II activity is reduced by over 98% in fibroblast and mononuclear cell extracts from the CDGS type II patients. Direct sequencing of the GnT II coding region from the two patients identified two point mutations in the catalytic domain of GnT II, S290F (TCC to TTC) and H262R (CAC to CGC). Either of these mutations inactivates the enzyme and probably also causes reduced expression. The CDG syndromes and other congenital defects in glycan synthesis as well as studies of null mutations in the mouse provide strong evidence that the glycan moieties of glycoproteins play essential roles in the normal development and physiology of mammals and probably of all multicellular organisms.