Spatial Visualization of GlycoRNAs via ARPLA: An Aptamer-Guided RCA Approach
🌐 Other languages: English 日本語 中文
1. Background
RNA modifications are well-documented contributors to post-transcriptional regulation. Among them, glycoRNAs—RNAs conjugated with glycans—are a recently described and poorly understood class of biomolecules. Initial evidence for their existence was reported in 2021 by Flynn et al., who detected glycosylated small RNAs (Ryan, et al., Cell, 2021). However, due to a lack of suitable imaging methods, their precise cellular distribution and potential functional roles remained unclear.
To address this, Ma et al. (Yuan Ma, et al., Nat Biotechnol, 2024) developed an in situ imaging method termed ARPLA (Aptamer and RNA in situ hybridization-mediated Proximity Ligation Assay). This method aims to detect glycoRNAs with high spatial resolution, selectivity, and sequence specificity.