Scientists discover a common Biochemical

Context

Researchers have found an entirely new class of biomolecules which are common in all forms of life in Earth.

About the new class of molecules

• Researchers discovered biomolecular pathways in the cell that are completely unknown.
• The researchers, led by biochemist Ryan Flynn now at Boston Children's Hospital, discovered that glycans could attach to non-coding RNAs.
• GlycoRNA: The team found the glycoRNA within every cell they checked, in human, mouse, hamster, and zebrafish species, which are separated by hundreds of million years of evolution.
• This suggests these molecules may have some sort of important biological function that's been preserved across life on Earth.
• Disease association: Comparing the RNA bits of glycoRNA against RNA databases, it was also discovered that some of those molecules match RNAs linked to diseases.
• Some of the RNAs modified by glycans to form glycoRNA have a sordid history of association with autoimmune diseases.
• It had previously been thought these bits of RNA were mostly inaccessible to our immune system because they were tucked safely away within our cells and only released through cell death.
• Surface structure: It is found that glycoRNAs are on the cell surface, just like proteins and lipids.
• It means that glycoRNAs can participate directly in cell-to-cell communication.

Significance

• Discovery of glycoRNAs will hopefully lead to many more answers soon, possibly about some people's troublesome immune systems.
• RNA was previously thought to function only inside cells – within their nucleus and fluid – whereas glycans are usually separated from them by membranes in a cell's little organelles or on the cell's surface.