Transcriptome-wide N-methyladenosine (mA) methylation in soybean under infection.

UNLABELLED

N-methyladenosine (mA) is a reversible epigenetic modification of mRNA and other RNAs that plays a significant role in regulating gene expression and biological processes. However, mA abundance, dynamics, and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms remain unexplored in the context of soybean resistance to . In this study, we performed a comparative analysis of transcriptome-wide mA and metabolome profiles of soybean root tissues with and without infection. Global mA hypermethylation was widely induced in response to infection and was enriched around the 3' end of coding sequences and in 3' UTR regions. There were 2069 significantly modified mA sites, 594 differentially expressed genes, and 103 differentially accumulated metabolites between infected and uninfected roots, including coumestrol, psoralidin, and 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate. Among 101 mA-modified DEGs, 34 genes were hypomethylated and upregulated, and 39 genes were hypermethylated and downregulated, indicating a highly negative correlation between mA methylation and gene transcript abundance. A number of these mA-modified DEGs, including , , and , were involved in plant defense responses. Our study provides new insights into the critical role of mA modification in early soybean responses to .

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42994-022-00077-2.