Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an abundant RNA modification in eukaryotes, playing crucial roles in multiple biological processes. m6A is catalyzed by the activity of Mettl3, which depends on additional proteins whose precise functions remain poorly understood. Here we identified Flacc/Zc3h13 as a novel interactor of m6A methyltransferase complex components in Drosophila and mouse. Like other components, Flacc controls m6A levels and is involved in sex determination in Drosophila. We demonstrate that Flacc promotes the recruitment of the methyltransferase to mRNA by bridging Fl(2)d to the mRNA binding factor Spenito. Altogether, our work advances our molecular understanding of conservation and regulation of the m6A machinery.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification present in the mRNA of all higher eukaryotes. Here we present that m6A is selectively recognized by human YTH domain family (YTHDF2) protein to regulate mRNA degradation. By using crosslinking and immunoprecipitation, we have identified over 4000 substrate RNA of YTHDF2 with conserved core motif of G(m6A)C. We further estabilshed the role of YTHDF2 in RNA metabolism by a combination of ribosome profiling, RNA sequencing, m6A level quantification and cell-based imaging: the C-terminal domain of YTHDF2 selectively binds to m6A of mRNA and the N-terminal domain is responsive for localizing mRNA from translatable pool to processing body where mRNA decay occurs. PAR-CLIP and RIP was used to identify YTHDF2 binding sites followed by ribosome profling and RNA seq to assess the consequences of YTHDF2 siRNA knock-down
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) has been recently identified as a conserved epitranscriptomic modification of eukaryotic mRNAs, but its features, regulatory mechanisms, and functions in cell reprogramming are largely unknown. Here, we report m6A modification profiles in the mRNA transcriptomes of four cell types with different degrees of pluripotency. Comparative analysis reveals several features of m6A, especially gene- and cell-type-specific m6A mRNA modifications. We also show that microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate m6A modification via a sequence pairing mechanism. Manipulation of miRNA expression or sequences alters m6A modification levels through modulating the binding of METTL3 methyltransferase to mRNAs containing miRNA targeting sites. Increased m6A abundance promotes the reprogramming of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to pluripotent stem cells; conversely, reduced m6A levels impede reprogramming. Our results therefore uncover a role for miRNAs in regulating m6A formation of mRNAs and provide a foundation for future functional studies of m6A modification in cell reprogramming. m6A-seq in ESC, iPSC, NSC and sertoli cells.
Project description:Oxaliplatin as a first-line drug frequently causes the chemo-resistance on colorectal cancer (CRC). N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation has been largely acknowledged in multiple biological functions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the m6A methylation in modulating anticancer drug resistance in CRC are still obscure. In present study, RIP-seq was conducted to investigate the occupancy of N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein 3 (YTHDF3) served as “readers” that can recognize m6A modification site in HCT116 cells with oxaliplatin resistance (HCT116R). Then, YTHDF3 was knockdown by siRNA in HCT116 cells with oxaliplatin resistance, and RIP-seq was further conducted to investigate m6A methylation of HCT116, HCT116R and HCT116R cells with YTHDF3 knockdown.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification found in mammalian messenger and non-coding RNAs. The discoveries of functionally significant demethylases that reverse this methylation as well as the recently revealed m6A distributions in mammalian transcriptomes strongly indicate regulatory functions of this modification. Here we report the identification and characterization of the mammalian nuclear RNA N6-adenosine methyltransferase core (RNMTC) complex. Besides METTL3, a methyltransferase which was the only known component of RNMTC in the past, we discovered that a previously uncharacterized methyltransferase, METTL14, exhibits a N6-adenosine methyltransferase activity higher than METTL3. Together with WTAP, the third component that dramatically affects the cellular m6A level, these three proteins form the core complex that orchestrates m6A deposition on mammalian nuclear RNA. Biochemistry assays, imaging experiments, as well as transcriptome-wide analyses of the binding sites and their effects on m6A methylation support methylation function and reveal new insights of RNMTC. PAR-CLIP and m6A-seq in HeLa cells
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most abundant modifications in eukaryotic RNA. Recent mapping of m6A methylomes in mammals, yeast, and plants as well as characterization of m6A methyltransferases, demethylases, and binding proteins have revealed regulatory functions of this dynamic RNA modification. In bacteria, although m6A is present in ribosomal RNA (rRNA), its occurrence in messenger RNA (mRNA) still remains elusive. Here, we used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to calculate the m6A/A ratio in mRNA from a wide range of bacterial species, which demonstrates that m6A is an abundant mRNA modification in tested bacteria. Subsequent transcriptome-wide m6A profiling in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed a conserved distinct m6A pattern that is significantly different from that in eukaryotes. Most m6A peaks are located inside open reading frames (ORF), and carry a unique consensus motif (GCCAU). Functional enrichment analysis of bacterial m6A peaks indicates that the majority of m6A-modified transcripts are associated with respiration, amino acids metabolism, stress response, and small RNAs genes, suggesting potential regulatory roles of m6A in these pathways. m6A profiling in E.coli and P.aeruginosa mRNA
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant modified base in eukaryotic mRNA and has been linked to diverse effects on mRNA fate and function. Current m6A mapping approaches rely on immunoprecipitation of m6A-containing RNA fragments to identify regions of transcripts that contain m6A. This approach localizes m6A residues to 100-200 nt-long regions of transcripts. The precise position of m6A in mRNAs cannot be identified on a transcriptome-wide level because there are no chemical methods to distinguish between m6A and adenosine. Here we show that anti-m6A antibodies can induce specific mutational signatures at m6A residues after ultraviolet light-induced antibody-RNA crosslinking and reverse transcription. Similarly, we find these antibodies induce mutational signatures at N6, 2’-O-dimethyladenosine (m6Am), a nucleotide found at the first encoded position of certain mRNAs. Using these mutational signatures, we map m6A and m6Am at single-nucleotide resolution in human and mouse mRNA and identify snoRNAs as a novel class of m6A-containing ncRNAs. UV-crosslinking and immunoprecipitation with m6A-specific antibodies was used to map m6A and m6Am in cellular RNA with single nucleotide resolution.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal messenger (mRNA) modification in mammalian mRNA. This modification is reversible and non-stoichiometric, which potentially adds an additional layer of variety and dynamic control of mRNA metabolism. The m6A-modified mRNA can be selectively recognized by the YTH family “reader” proteins. The preferential binding of m6A-containing mRNA by YTHDF2 is known to reduce the stability of the target transcripts; however, the exact effects of m6A on translation has yet to be elucidated. Here we show that another m6A reader protein, YTHDF1, promotes ribosome loading of its target transcripts. YTHDF1 forms a complex with translation initiation factors to elevate the translation efficiency of its bound mRNA. In a unified mechanism of translation control through m6A, the YTHDF2-mediated decay controls the lifetime of target transcripts; whereas, the YTHDF1-based translation promotion increases the translation efficiency to ensure effective protein production from relatively short-lived transcripts that are marked by m6A. PAR-CLIP and RIP was used to identify YTHDF1 binding sites followed by ribosome profling and RNA seq to assess the consequences of YTHDF1 siRNA knock-down
Project description:Genomic and transcriptomic alterations are insufficient to explain the variance in protein expression seen in cancer. Recent evidence has highlighted the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in the regulation of mRNA expression, stability and translation, supporting a potential role for post-transcriptional regulation mediated by m6A in cancer. Here we explore prostate cancer as an exemplar cancer and generate the first prostate m6A maps, and further examined how low levels of N6-adenosine-methyltransferase (METTL3) associates with advanced prostate cancer and results in altered expression at the level of transcription, translation, and protein. In particular extracellular matrix proteins have a high number of m6A sites and show significant changes in expression with METTL3 knock-down. We also discovered the upregulation of a hepatocyte nuclear factor-driven gene signature that is associated with therapy resistance in prostate cancer. Significantly, METTL3 knock-down rendered the cells resistant to androgen receptor antagonists, implicating changes in m6A as a mechanism for therapy resistance in metastatic prostate cancer.
Project description:N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) modification has been found to play important roles in diverse pathogen infections and host responses, here we report host m6A mRNA transcriptome profiles regulated by the infections of two strains of malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii (N67 and N67C). We showed that malaria infection can regulate host m6A mRNA modification and reprogram host m6A mRNA methylome by mediating corresponding m6A catalytic enzyme levels. Our data suggested m6A modification as a significant transcriptome-wide mark during host-malaria interactions.