Smaug regula la diferenciación adipocítica

MARCELO PÉREZ; MARÍA GABRIELA THOMAS; JERÓNIMO PIMENTEL; ANA JULIA FERNÁNDEZ-ÁLVAREZ; GRACIELA LIDIA BOCCACCIO; DAVID MANCILLA; MARÍA GABRIELA THOMAS

Buenos Aires

Workshop; RNA Molecular and Cellular Biology Workshop; 2018

RNA society

Mammalian mSmaug1 is an mRNA repressor involved in translational regulation in hippocampal synapses and forms cytoplasmic silencing foci (S-foci) similar to Stress Granules and Processing Bodies (Baez and Boccaccio, JBC 2005; Baez et al., JCB 2011). Both Drosophila and mammalian Smaug repress reporter mRNAs carrying specific motifs termed Smaug-Recognition-Elements (SREs), which consist of a stem-loop with the sequence CNGGN(0-8). Using an ad hoc MATLAB algorithm, we carried out an in silico search to identify mammalian transcripts carrying SREs. We found that several human transcripts linked to glycolysis, lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function are potential Smaug targets, and similar results were reported in Drosophila. Mice carrying a mutation in Smaug1 present a phenotype similar to that of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) mutants. The Shh pathway is a major signaling pathway and we found that pharmacological manipulation of Shh affects S- foci formation. These results suggest that Smaug repression is regulated by Shh, likely affecting the expression of key cellular transcripts.