Long Noncoding RNAs That Function in Nutrition: Lnc-ing Nutritional Cues to Metabolic Pathways

Annu Rev Nutr. 2022 Aug 22:42:251-274. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-062220-030244. Epub 2022 Apr 18.

Abstract

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are sensitive to changing environments and play key roles in health and disease. Emerging evidence indicates that lncRNAs regulate gene expression to shape metabolic processes in response to changing nutritional cues. Here we review various lncRNAs sensitive to fasting, feeding, and high-fat diet in key metabolic tissues (liver, adipose, and muscle), highlighting regulatory mechanisms that trigger expression changes of lncRNAs themselves, and how these lncRNAs regulate gene expression of key metabolic genes in specific cell types or across tissues. Determining how lncRNAs respond to changes in nutrition is critical for our understanding of the complex downstream cascades following dietary changes and can shape how we treat metabolic disease. Furthermore, investigating sex biases that might influence lncRNA-regulated responses will likely reveal contributions toward the observed disparities between the sexes in metabolic diseases.

Keywords: X-chromosome inactivation; XIST RNA; diurnal fasting and refeeding; high-fat diet; long noncoding RNAs; metabolic tissues; sex bias in nutrition.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cues
  • Fasting
  • Humans
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways
  • RNA, Long Noncoding* / genetics
  • RNA, Long Noncoding* / metabolism

Substances

  • RNA, Long Noncoding