Identification of genes required for neural-specific glycosylation using functional genomics

Glycosylation plays crucial regulatory roles in various biological processes such as development,immunity,and neural functions. for example,a1,3-fucosylation,the addition of a fucose moiety abundant in drosophila neural cells,is essential for neural development,function,and behavior. however,it remains largely unknown how neural-specific a1,3-fucosylation is regulated. in the present study,we searched for genes involved in the glycosylation of a neural-specific protein using a drosophila rnai library. we obtained 109 genes affecting glycosylation that clustered into nine functional groups. among them,members of the rna regulation group were enriched by a secondary screen that identified genes specifically regulating a1,3-fucosylation. further analyses revealed that an rna-binding protein,second mitotic wave missing (swm),upregulates expression of the neural-specific glycosyltransferase fucta and facilitates its mrna export from the nucleus. this first large-scale genetic screen for glycosylation-related genes has revealed novel regulation of fucta mrna in neural cells. © 2010 yamamoto-hino et al.