Role of RNA Modifications, Especially m6A, in Aflatoxin Biosynthesis of .

RNA modifications play key roles in eukaryotes, but the functions in are still unknown. Temperature has been reported previously to be a critical environmental factor that regulates the aflatoxin production of , but much remains to be learned about the molecular networks. Here, we demonstrated that 12 kinds of RNA modifications in were significantly changed under 29 °C compared to 37 °C incubation; among them, m6A was further verified by a colorimetric method. Then, the transcriptome-wide m6A methylome and m6A-altered genes were comprehensively illuminated through methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing and RNA sequencing, from which 22 differentially methylated and expressed transcripts under 29 °C were screened out. It is especially notable that AFCA_009549, an aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway gene (), and the m6A methylation of its 332nd adenine in the mRNA significantly affect aflatoxin biosynthesis in both on media and crop kernels. The content of sterigmatocystin in both Δ and strains was significantly higher than that in the WT strain. Together, these findings reveal that RNA modifications are associated with secondary metabolite biosynthesis of .