Mol. Cells 2021; 44(7): 538-539
Published online July 31, 2021
https://doi.org/10.14348/molcells.2021.0178
© The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology
Correspondence to : asians123@snu.ac.kr
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an important biological macromolecule that is central to all known life. In a cell, RNA is involved in numerous biological pathways, including transferring the messenger instructions from DNA to proteins, the synthesis of proteins, and the catalysis of biological pathways. More than 170 post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs) of RNA have been identified (Boccaletto et al., 2018; Nachtergaele and He, 2017) to date, and these PTMs have been suggested to confer functional complexity to RNA. Accordingly, significant advances have been made over the past few years to understand the complexity of RNA PTMs and their pathophysiological effect.
RNA modified with sialoglycans (glycoRNAs), a new type of modified RNA (Flynn et al., 2021), was identified in a recent research. The investigators showed that these glycoRNAs are conserved RNAs bearing glycans and found in multiple cell types and mammalian species. This finding is surprising because, unlike lipids and proteins, there has been no evidence so far of a direct linkage between RNA and glycans in nature. However, investigators challenged this view by demonstrating glycosylated RNAs in cells using metabolic labeling and biorthogonal chemistry
The implication of this study is immense, particularly in the research area of RNA biology and glycosylation disorder. While the framework in which glycobiology is understood excludes RNA as a substrate for N-glycosylation, the discovery of glycoRNAs suggests that the current view is incomplete and indicates a new axis for RNA glycobiology. Moreover, glycoRNAs on the cell surface point to the potential roles of RNAs in inter-cellular interactions, which provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms involved in RNA-related pathophysiology. Additionally, it has been well appreciated that dysregulated glycosylation process promotes defects in various cellular functions such as metabolism, inflammatory response, apoptosis, and immune escape. It has been a popular belief for several years that cellular defects caused by aberrant glycosylation are attributable to abnormal glycosylation on proteins or lipids; however, this study provides an important clue that glycoRNAs are alternative players that contribute to the pathology of dysregulated glycosylation in various human diseases.
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2020R1A3B2078617).
The author has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Mol. Cells 2021; 44(7): 538-539
Published online July 31, 2021 https://doi.org/10.14348/molcells.2021.0178
Copyright © The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology.
A new research discovered that RNA could be glycosylated and displayed on the cell surface, suggesting the potential role of RNAs in inter-cellular communication.
Yoon Jeong Park*
Center for Adipose Tissue Remodeling, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Correspondence to:asians123@snu.ac.kr
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an important biological macromolecule that is central to all known life. In a cell, RNA is involved in numerous biological pathways, including transferring the messenger instructions from DNA to proteins, the synthesis of proteins, and the catalysis of biological pathways. More than 170 post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs) of RNA have been identified (Boccaletto et al., 2018; Nachtergaele and He, 2017) to date, and these PTMs have been suggested to confer functional complexity to RNA. Accordingly, significant advances have been made over the past few years to understand the complexity of RNA PTMs and their pathophysiological effect.
RNA modified with sialoglycans (glycoRNAs), a new type of modified RNA (Flynn et al., 2021), was identified in a recent research. The investigators showed that these glycoRNAs are conserved RNAs bearing glycans and found in multiple cell types and mammalian species. This finding is surprising because, unlike lipids and proteins, there has been no evidence so far of a direct linkage between RNA and glycans in nature. However, investigators challenged this view by demonstrating glycosylated RNAs in cells using metabolic labeling and biorthogonal chemistry
The implication of this study is immense, particularly in the research area of RNA biology and glycosylation disorder. While the framework in which glycobiology is understood excludes RNA as a substrate for N-glycosylation, the discovery of glycoRNAs suggests that the current view is incomplete and indicates a new axis for RNA glycobiology. Moreover, glycoRNAs on the cell surface point to the potential roles of RNAs in inter-cellular interactions, which provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms involved in RNA-related pathophysiology. Additionally, it has been well appreciated that dysregulated glycosylation process promotes defects in various cellular functions such as metabolism, inflammatory response, apoptosis, and immune escape. It has been a popular belief for several years that cellular defects caused by aberrant glycosylation are attributable to abnormal glycosylation on proteins or lipids; however, this study provides an important clue that glycoRNAs are alternative players that contribute to the pathology of dysregulated glycosylation in various human diseases.
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2020R1A3B2078617).
The author has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.