Oncogenes and expression of endogenous lectins and glycoconjugates

It is now well established that malignant transformation of eucaryotic cells is concomitant with typical alterations of glycosylation and the expression pattern of endogenous lectins. In parallel, oncogene transfection studies revealed a correlation between the expression of some of these genes, the transformed state and perhaps metastasis. These observations lead to the idea that oncogenes may control the expression of enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of cell membrane glycoconjugates and the expression of endogenous lectins. Indeed, several contributions have shown that cells upon transfection with activated oncogenes of the ras family become invasive and/or metastatic and have their membrane glycoproteins modified. Information on the molecular mechanism of this postulated oncogene regulation is still lacking. Because of the diversity of the functions of oncogene-encoded proteins, further experiments dealing with other activated oncogenes may help in deciphering the regulation of expression of glycoconjugates and endogenous lectins together with their functions.