title: Intersections of post-transcriptional gene regulatory mechanisms with intermediary metabolism.
abstract: Intermediary metabolism studies have typically concentrated on four major regulatory mechanisms-substrate availability, allosteric enzyme regulation, post-translational enzyme modification, and regulated enzyme synthesis. Although transcriptional control has been a big focus, it is becoming increasingly evident that many post-transcriptional events are deeply embedded within the core regulatory circuits of enzyme synthesis/breakdown that maintain metabolic homeostasis. The prominent post-transcriptional mechanisms affecting intermediary metabolism include alternative pre-mRNA processing, mRNA stability and translation control, and the more recently discovered regulation by noncoding RNAs. In this review, we discuss the latest advances in our understanding of these diverse mechanisms at the cell-, tissue- and organismal-level. We also highlight the dynamics, complexity and non-linear nature of their regulatory roles in metabolic decision making, and deliberate some of the outstanding questions and challenges in this rapidly expanding field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA; College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Waqar
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Arif
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Gandhar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Datar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA; College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA; Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA. Electronic address: kalsotra@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Auinash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalsotra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic / Q000502:physiology*; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000502:physiology*; D012322:RNA Precursors / Q000378:metabolism*; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012322:RNA Precursors
keywords: Alternative splicing; LncRNA; Metabolic syndrome; MicroRNA; Post-transcriptional gene regulation