Long noncoding RNA glycoLINC assembles a lower glycolytic complex to promote glycolysis

Non-covalent complexes of glycolytic enzymes termed metabolons were postulated in the 1970s, but the concept has been controversial. Here we show that a c-Myc-responsive long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that we name glycoLINC (gLINC) acts as a backbone for metabolon formation between all four glycolytic pay-off phase enzymes (PGK1, PGAM1, ENO1 and PKM2) along with LDHA. The gLINC metabolon enhances glycolytic flux, increases ATP production and enables cell survival under serine deprivation. Furthermore, gLINC overexpression in cancer cells promotes xenograft growth in mice fed a diet deprived of serine, suggesting that cancer cells employ gLINC during metabolic reprogramming. This proposes that gLINC makes a functional contribution to cancer cell adaptation and moreover, provides the first example of a lncRNA-facilitated metabolon.