Small but mighty: microexons in glucose homeostasis

Kristle Garcia; Anna L Gloyn

doi:10.1016/j.tig.2023.04.003

Small but mighty: microexons in glucose homeostasis

Trends Genet. 2023 Jul;39(7):526-527. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2023.04.003. Epub 2023 Apr 18.

Authors

Kristle Garcia¹, Anna L Gloyn²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Diabetes Research Center, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: agloyn@stanford.edu.

Abstract

Many molecular mechanisms underlying blood glucose homeostasis remain elusive. Juan-Mateu et al. find that pancreatic islet cells utilize a regulatory program, originally identified in neurons, that involves alternative splicing of microexons in genes important for insulin secretion or diabetes risk.

Keywords: diabetes; gene regulation; pancreatic islet.

MeSH terms

Alternative Splicing* / genetics
Glucose / genetics
Glucose / metabolism
Homeostasis / genetics
Insulin / genetics
Insulin / metabolism
Islets of Langerhans* / metabolism

Substances

Glucose
Insulin

Grants and funding

T32 GM141828/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States