College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, P.R. China.
Department of Criminal Science and Technology, Nanjing Forest Police College, Nanjing 210023, P.R. China.
Plant Cell. 2023 Sep 27;35(10):3739-3756. doi: 10.1093/plcell/koad189.
The biological function of RNA can be modulated by base modifications. Here, we unveiled the occurrence of N4-acetylation of cytidine in plant RNA, including mRNA, by employing LC-MS/MS and acRIP-seq. We identified 325 acetylated transcripts from the leaves of 4-week-old Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants and determined that 2 partially redundant N-ACETYLTRANSFERASEs FOR CYTIDINE IN RNA (ACYR1 and ACYR2), which are homologous to mammalian NAT10, are required for acetylating RNA in vivo. A double-null mutant was embryo lethal, while eliminating 3 of the 4 ACYR alleles led to defects in leaf development. These phenotypes could be traced back to the reduced acetylation and concomitant destabilization of the transcript of TOUGH, which is required for miRNA processing. These findings indicate that N4-acetylation of cytidine is a modulator of RNA function with a critical role in plant development and likely many other processes.
RNA 的生物学功能可以通过碱基修饰来调节。在这里，我们通过 LC-MS/MS 和 acRIP-seq 揭示了植物 RNA（包括 mRNA）中胞嘧啶的 N4-乙酰化的发生。我们从 4 周龄拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）植物的叶片中鉴定出 325 个乙酰化转录本，并确定 2 个部分冗余的 RNA 中的胞嘧啶 N-乙酰转移酶（ACYR1 和 ACYR2），它们与哺乳动物 NAT10 同源，是体内 RNA 乙酰化所必需的。双突变体是胚胎致死的，而消除 4 个 ACYR 等位基因中的 3 个导致叶片发育缺陷。这些表型可以追溯到 TOUGH 的转录物的乙酰化和伴随的不稳定性降低，该转录物是 miRNA 加工所必需的。这些发现表明，胞嘧啶的 N4-乙酰化是 RNA 功能的调节剂，在植物发育和可能许多其他过程中起着关键作用。
