Abstract

Exploring the regulation of protein glycosylation using RNAi screening

Frederic Bard, Assistant Professor, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology

Protein glycosylation plays important modulatory roles in human physiology and glycosylation patterns are strongly affected in multiple pathologies including cancer. Virtually all proteins at the cell surface are glycosylated. However, little is known on how protein glycosylation is regulated in response to external or internal signals. As most protein glycosylation occurs at the Golgi apparatus and is dependent on its internal structure, we asked what genes regulate Golgi organization. Surprisingly, we found a large number of kinases and phosphatases involved. Many of them also strongly affect glycosylation. We further focused on a subset of signaling genes that specifically regulate O-glycosylation. Depletion of these genes is able to recapitulate the glyco-phenotype observed in many human cancers.