The root of both "mannose" and "mannitol" is manna, which the Bible describes as the food supplied to the Israelites during their journey in the region of Sinai.

[citation needed] The digestion of many polysaccharides and glycoproteins yields mannose, which is phosphorylated by hexokinase to generate mannose-6-phosphate.

[citation needed] Mannose is a dominant monosaccharide in N-linked glycosylation, which is a post-translational modification of proteins.

It is initiated by the en bloc transfer on Glc3Man9GlcNAc2 to nascent glycoproteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in a co-translational manner as the protein entered through the transport system.

Typically, mature human glycoproteins only contain three mannose residues buried under sequential modification by GlcNAc, galactose, and sialic acid.

This is important, as the innate immune system in mammals is geared to recognise exposed mannose residues.

The human immunodeficiency virus displays considerable amount of mannose residues due to the tight clustering of glycans in its viral spike.

[7] Recombinant proteins produced in yeast may be subject to mannose addition in patterns different from those used by mammalian cells.

[citation needed] Mannose (D-mannose) is used as a dietary supplement to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Mannose XYZ permease is a member of the family, with this distinct method being used by bacteria for sugar uptake particularly exogenous hexoses in the case of mannose XYZ to release the phosphate esters into the cell cytoplasm in preparation for metabolism primarily through the route of glycolysis.