Li Yu, Zhang Xiao-Ming, Luan Mei-Wei, Xing Jian-Feng, Chen Jianguo, Xie Shang-Qian
Key Laboratory of Genetics and Germplasm Innovation of Tropical Special Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants (Ministry of Education), Hainan Key Laboratory for Biology of Tropical Ornamental Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, China.
College of Grassland, Resources and Environment, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Huhhot, China.
Front Genet. 2020 Mar 24;11:268. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00268. eCollection 2020.
N6-methyladenosine (6mA) DNA modification played an important role in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. And the aberrational expression of non-coding genes, as important regular elements of gene expression, was related to many diseases. However, the distribution and potential functions of 6mA modification in non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes are still unknown. In this study, we analyzed the 6mA distribution of ncRNA genes and compared them with protein-coding genes in four species (, , , and ) using single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing data. The results indicated that the consensus motifs of short nucleotides at 6mA location were highly conserved in four species, and the non-coding gene was less likely to be methylated compared with protein-coding gene. Especially, the 6mA-methylated lncRNA genes were expressed significant lower than genes without methylation in ( = 3.295e-4), ( = 3.439e-11), and ( = 9.087e-3).. The detection and distribution profiling of 6mA modification in ncRNA regions from four species reveal that 6mA modifications may have effects on their expression level.
N6-甲基腺嘌呤（6mA）DNA修饰在基因表达的表观遗传调控中发挥着重要作用。而作为基因表达重要调控元件的非编码基因的异常表达与多种疾病相关。然而，6mA修饰在非编码RNA（ncRNA）基因中的分布及潜在功能仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们利用单分子实时（SMRT）测序数据，分析了四种物种（、、、和）中ncRNA基因的6mA分布，并将其与蛋白质编码基因进行比较。结果表明，6mA位点处短核苷酸的共有基序在四种物种中高度保守，与蛋白质编码基因相比，非编码基因甲基化的可能性较小。特别是，在（=3.295e-4）、（=3.439e-11）和（=9.087e-3）中，6mA甲基化的lncRNA基因表达显著低于未甲基化的基因。对四种物种ncRNA区域6mA修饰的检测和分布分析表明，6mA修饰可能对其表达水平有影响。
