A draft of human N-glycans of glycoRNA

Abstract

In addition to the backbone molecules of proteins and lipids, RNAs have recently been found to be N-glycosylated as well in cell models. Some overlap of N-glycans between RNA and protein exist in terms of monosaccharide composition. Here we report a draft of human tissue N-glycans of glycoRNA covering 12 typical organs as characterized by mass spectrometry-based N-glycomics. RNAs were first prepared, N-glycans were then enzymatically released, hydrophilically enriched, permethylated, analyzed by RPLC-MS/MS, and finally identified by N-glycan search engine GlySeeker. A total of 676 putative sequence structures with 236 monosaccharide compositions were identified across the 12 organs. Organ-specific similarity and heterogeneity of N-glycosylation in glycoRNAs were annotated. This first comprehensive draft of human glycoRNAs serves a foundation for future structural and functional studies.