miRNA proxy approach reveals hidden functions of glycosylation
Abstract
Carbohydrates hold an unprecedented capacity for altering biological function, but determining which glycans and underlying enzymes are crucial for a specific biological pathway is a major impediment to our understanding of this posttranslational modification. Here we demonstrate that the mRNA target networks of microRNA (miRNA), small noncoding RNA, identify glycosylation enzymes acting as regulatory elements within a biological pathway. Leveraging the miRNA-200 family (miR-200f), regulators of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), we identify multiple promesenchymal glycosylation enzymes. Silencing miR-200f–targeted glycogenes phenocopies the effect of miR-200f, inducing mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition. These enzymes are upregulated in TGF-β–induced EMT, suggesting tight integration within the signaling network. Our work indicates that miRNA networks can be used to identify crucial glycosylation enzymes driving disease states.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 26, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1502076112
Entities
People
- Anika V. Paradkar
- Christopher A Vaiana
- Lara Mahal
- Praveen Agrawal
- Sujeethraj Koppolu
- Tomasz Kurcon
- Zhongyin Liu
Organizations
- New York University
- United States Department of Defense