Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genomic Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Department of Public Health, and Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
J Chin Med Assoc. 2020 Mar;83(3):221-226. doi: 10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000251.
Like DNA and proteins, RNA is subject to numerous (over 160) covalent modifications which play critical roles to regulate RNA metabolism. Among these modifications, N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most prevalent RNA methylation on mRNA which occurs on around 25% of transcripts. The recent studies demonstrated that mA participates in many aspects of RNA processing, including splicing, nuclear exporting, translation, stabilization, etc. Therefore, it revealed a new layer of regulatory mechanism for gene expression and has been termed "RNA Epigenetics" or "Epitranscriptomics". RNA mA is regulated and exerts its functions by three groups of "mA RNA modifiers" including mA methyltransferases (writers), mA demethylases (erasers), and mA binding proteins (readers). In this review, we would summarize and discuss the current understandings of the roles of the conventional mA RNA modifiers in human cancers.
与 DNA 和蛋白质一样，RNA 也受到多种（超过 160 种）共价修饰的影响，这些修饰对调节 RNA 代谢起着关键作用。在这些修饰中，N6-甲基腺苷（m6A）是 mRNA 上最普遍的 RNA 甲基化，大约发生在 25%的转录本上。最近的研究表明，m6A 参与了 RNA 加工的许多方面，包括剪接、核输出、翻译、稳定等。因此，它揭示了基因表达的一个新的调控机制层，被称为“RNA 表观遗传学”或“表观转录组学”。RNA m6A 受到三组“m6A RNA 修饰物”的调节和发挥作用，包括 m6A 甲基转移酶（writers）、m6A 去甲基化酶（erasers）和 m6A 结合蛋白（readers）。在这篇综述中，我们将总结和讨论传统的 m6A RNA 修饰物在人类癌症中的作用的现有认识。
