Readers of the mA epitranscriptomic code.

N-methyl adenosine (mA) is the most prevalent and evolutionarily conserved, modification of polymerase II transcribed RNAs. By post-transcriptionally controlling patterns of gene expression, mA deposition is crucial for organism reproduction, development and likely stress responses. mA mostly mediates its effect by recruiting reader proteins that either directly accommodate the modified residue in a hydrophobic pocket formed by their YTH domain, or otherwise have their affinity positively influenced by the presence of mA. We firstly describe here the evolutionary history, and review known molecular and physiological roles of eukaryote YTH readers. In the second part, we present non YTH-proteins whose roles as mA readers largely remain to be explored. The diversity and multiplicity of mA readers together with the possibility to regulate their expression and function in response to various cues, offers a multitude of possible combinations to rapidly and finely tune gene expression patterns and hence cellular plasticity. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: mRNA modifications in gene expression control edited by Dr. Soller Matthias and Dr. Fray Rupert.