“A completely unknown biology”  huh?

Glycans May Bind to RNA?

Although still in preprint form, results published this fall introduced a new aspect to cell biology: glycoRNAs, or noncoding RNA strung with complex sugars called glycans. Glycans are normally sequestered in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi bodies, away from RNA in the cytoplasm and nucleus.

“There really is no framework in biology as we know it today that would explain how RNA and glycans could ever be in the same place at the same time, much less be connected to each other,” senior author Carolyn Bertozzi, a chemical biologist at Stanford University, told The Scientist in October.

“Whatever it is, it’s a completely unknown biology.” Expect to see more insight into this mysterious new cellular entity—its function, its structure, and its prevalence.

Mammalian Y RNAs are modified at discrete guanosine residues with N-glycans

these findings suggest the existence of a ubiquitous interface of RNA biology and glycobiology suggesting an expanded role for glycosylation beyond canonical lipid and protein scaffolds.

The framework in which glycobiology is presently understood excludes RNA as a substrate for N-glycosylation.

Our discovery of glycoRNA suggest this is an incomplete view and points to a new axis of RNA glycobiology, including unprecedented enzymology, trafficking, and cell biology.

For the first time, scientists have found that complex sugars called glycans may bind to some RNA molecules,

The findings could substantially alter the current perception of RNA’s function.

“There really is no framework in biology as we know it today that would explain how RNA and glycans could ever be in the same place at the same time, much less be connected to each other,” senior author Carolyn Bertozzi, a chemical biologist at Stanford University, tells The Scientist.

a surprising finding that the researchers had never seen before.

“It was a really weird discovery. At first we were skeptical. . . We tried to shoot it down in every way that we could think of, and it just kept holding up,” says Bertozzi.

The researchers don’t yet know how the RNA and the sugars are bound

“Whatever it is, it’s a completely unknown biology,” says Bertozzi.

“This paper, if verified, would certainly open up an entirely new direction of research investigating gene expression, gene regulation, quality control of transcription, and RNA turnover,”

“I was surprised and excited to see it. It’s an unexpected and thought-provoking observation,” says Torsten Krude at the University of Cambridge

“If the results are consistent and verified by others, and if it holds the test of time and scrutiny, it would be an exciting new aspect to RNA biology.”