Cao Guangchao, Li Hua-Bing, Yin Zhinan, Flavell Richard A
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
Department of Immunobiology, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Open Biol. 2016 Apr;6(4):160003. doi: 10.1098/rsob.160003. Epub 2016 Apr 13.
The identification of m(6)A demethylases and high-throughput sequencing analysis of methylated transcriptome corroborated m(6)A RNA epigenetic modification as a dynamic regulation process, and reignited its investigation in the past few years. Many basic concepts of cytogenetics have been revolutionized by the growing understanding of the fundamental role of m(6)A in RNA splicing, degradation and translation. In this review, we summarize typical features of methylated transcriptome in mammals, and highlight the 'writers', 'erasers' and 'readers' of m(6)A RNA modification. Moreover, we emphasize recent advances of biological functions of m(6)A and conceive the possible roles of m(6)A in the regulation of immune response and related diseases.
m(6)A去甲基化酶的鉴定以及甲基化转录组的高通量测序分析证实了m(6)A RNA表观遗传修饰是一个动态调控过程，并在过去几年中重新引发了对它的研究。随着对m(6)A在RNA剪接、降解和翻译中的基本作用的深入了解，细胞遗传学的许多基本概念都发生了变革。在这篇综述中，我们总结了哺乳动物甲基化转录组的典型特征，并重点介绍了m(6)A RNA修饰的“写入器”“擦除器”和“读取器”。此外，我们强调了m(6)A生物学功能的最新进展，并设想了m(6)A在免疫反应调节及相关疾病中的可能作用。
