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The Arabidopsis epitranscriptome
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Rupert G Fray and Gordon G Simpson
The most prevalent internal modification of plant messenger for Arabidopsis embryogenesis [1], and crucial to proper
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RNAs, N -methyladenosine (m A), was first discovered in the development [2]. Consequently, the control and impact
1970s, then largely forgotten. However, the impact of of an entire layer of gene regulation awaits discovery.
modifications to eukaryote mRNA, collectively known as the
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epitranscriptome, has recently attracted renewed attention. Methylating mRNA m A
mRNA methylation is required for normal Arabidopsis The most prevalent internal modification of eukaryotic
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development and the first methylation maps reveal that mRNA is methylation of adenosine at the N position
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thousands of Arabidopsis mRNAs are methylated. Arabidopsis (m A). Although first discovered in mammalian [3,4] and
is likely to be a model of wide utility in understanding the plant [5,6] mRNAs in the 1970s, it is only recently that
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biological impacts of the epitranscriptome. We review recent m A has been mapped transcriptome-wide and that func-
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progress and look ahead with questions awaiting answers to tions for m A have been uncovered [7 ,8 ].
reveal an entire layer of gene regulation that has until recently
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been overlooked. Mapping m A modifications
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Base-specific identification of m A is technically chal-
Addresses
1 lenging and not yet feasible transcriptome-wide. Instead,
School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington
Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK the current state-of-the-art involves using antibodies that
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Division of Plant Sciences, College of Life Sciences, University of recognize m A to immunoprecipitate and then sequence
Dundee, Cell and Molecular Sciences, James Hutton Institute,
RNAs carrying this modification in a procedure known as
Invergowrie DD2 5DA, Scotland, UK 6
MeRIP-Seq [9]. Because the specificity of anti-m A
antibodies is variable, such experiments should ideally
Corresponding authors: Fray, Rupert G ([email protected])
and Simpson, Gordon G ([email protected]) be controlled for by sequencing genetic backgrounds