Functions and Dynamics of Methylation in Eukaryotic mRNA

verfasst von
Mingjia Chen, Claus-Peter Witte
Abstract

Eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) contains non-canonical nucleosides, which are modified mostly by methylation. Although some modifications are known for decades, advances in high-throughput sequencing and mass spectrometric techniques now have allowed to elucidate transcriptome wide methylation patterns. The discovery of methyltransferases that write and demethylases that erase methylations in a sequence-specific manner, as well as reader proteins that recognize these modifications leading to a specific biological response, has triggered wide attention converting the research field of mRNA methylation into a current hotspot in molecular biology. Most research has focussed on N

6-methyladenosine (m

6A), which is the most abundant modification in eukaryotic mRNA. Therefore, this overview has a focus on m

6A summarizing the current knowledge on how specific m

6A patterns are generated and how they are recognized and translated into biological outputs like alternative splicing, altered transcript stability, or modified translational activity of mRNAs. The distribution patterns of other methylations in mRNA, such as N

1-methyladenosine (m

1A), 5-methylcytidine (m

5C) and 5-hydroxymethylcytidine (hm

5C) have also been mapped in recent years. We review the current knowledge regarding these and other minor eukaryotic mRNA methylations and provide an outlook suggesting potential future research directions.

Organisationseinheit(en)
Institut für Pflanzenernährung
Externe Organisation(en)
Nanjing Agricultural University
Typ
Beitrag in Buch/Sammelwerk
Seiten
333-351
Anzahl der Seiten
19
Publikationsdatum
2019
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Krebsforschung, Biochemie, Genetik, Molekularbiologie, Biochemie, medizinische
Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung
SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14792-1_13 (Zugang: Geschlossen)