Crop Biotechnics, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven Plant Institute (LPI), KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Sep 14;25(18):9937. doi: 10.3390/ijms25189937.
Although arginine methylation (R-methylation) is one of the most important post-translational modifications (PTMs) conserved in eukaryotes, it has not been studied to the same extent as phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. Technical constraints, which are in the process of being resolved, may partly explain this lack of success. Our knowledge of R-methylation has recently evolved considerably, particularly in metazoans, where misregulation of the enzymes that deposit this PTM is implicated in several diseases and cancers. Indeed, the roles of R-methylation have been highlighted through the analyses of the main actors of this pathway: the PRMT writer enzymes, the TUDOR reader proteins, and potential "eraser" enzymes. In contrast, R-methylation has been much less studied in plants. Even so, it has been shown that R-methylation in plants, as in animals, regulates housekeeping processes such as transcription, RNA silencing, splicing, ribosome biogenesis, and DNA damage. R-methylation has recently been highlighted in the regulation of membrane-free organelles in animals, but this role has not yet been demonstrated in plants. The identified R-met targets modulate key biological processes such as flowering, shoot and root development, and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Finally, arginine demethylases activity has mostly been identified in vitro, so further studies are needed to unravel the mechanism of arginine demethylation.
尽管精氨酸甲基化（R-甲基化）是真核生物中最保守的一种翻译后修饰（PTM），但它的研究程度不如磷酸化和泛素化。正在解决的技术限制可能部分解释了这种缺乏成功的原因。我们对 R-甲基化的认识最近有了相当大的发展，特别是在后生动物中，沉积这种 PTM 的酶的失调与几种疾病和癌症有关。事实上，通过对该途径的主要参与者：PRMT 写入酶、TUDOR 读取蛋白和潜在的“橡皮擦”酶的分析，突显了 R-甲基化的作用。相比之下，R-甲基化在植物中的研究要少得多。即便如此，已经表明植物中的 R-甲基化与动物中的一样，调节转录、RNA 沉默、剪接、核糖体生物发生和 DNA 损伤等管家过程。R-甲基化最近在动物中无膜细胞器的调节中得到了强调，但这一作用尚未在植物中得到证明。已鉴定的 R-met 靶标调节关键的生物学过程，如开花、茎和根的发育以及对非生物和生物胁迫的反应。最后，精氨酸去甲基酶的活性主要在体外被鉴定，因此需要进一步的研究来阐明精氨酸去甲基化的机制。
