Project description:Background: Maternal and zygotic mRNAs play critical roles in maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) stage and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) has been proven as an important RNA metabolism regulation system. However, the dynamic profiles of m6A modification during mammalian MZT and its potential functions remain largely unknown. Results: Here we utilized m6A-seq, low-input RNA-seq, LiRibo-seq and low-input proteomic analysis to examine the mRNA regulation dynamics during mouse MZT. We found that m6A could be inherited from maternal origin or de novo added after fertilization. Interestingly, we observed the de novo m6A modification on mRNA during zygotic genome activation (ZGA), especially at major ZGA. Further analysis showed that m6A modification on maternal mRNAs not only correlates with mRNA degradation after fertilization, but also maintains the stability of a small group of mRNAs thereby promoting their translation after fertilization. Using CRISPR-Cas13d mediated RNA editing, we systemically evaluated the functions of ten m6A regulators and identified Ythdc1 and Ythdf2 as key m6A readers for mouse preimplantation development. By combining low-input RNA-seq, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and qRT-PCR, we uncovered and verified that Ythdc1 can associate with a small group of m6A-tagged mRNAs and participate in their mRNA stability regulation. Conclusions: Our integrated multi-omic analysis links m6A modification to the diverse fates of maternal and zygotic mRNAs and establishes a key role of m6A mediated RNA metabolism in mammalian MZT.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent internal modification in eukaryotic messenger RNA, plays diverse regulatory roles in many biological processes and is involved in a variety of physiological behaviors. Here we present the m6A methylome maps of mouse oocytes and preimplantation embryos by a low-input approach picoMeRIP-seq. We revealed that m6A was largely and dynamically deposited on maternal and zygotic RNAs during maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT), especially on those encoding the factors essential for cell fate determination. m6A frequently marked the maternally-derived RNAs to be degraded and the genes that were activated during zygotic genome activation. Moreover, the RNAs derived from retrotransposons, such as MTA and MERVL, were heavily occupied by m6A. Collectively, our results provide a foundation for future studies exploring the regulatory roles of m6A in mammalian early embryo development.
Project description:Maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) is a conserved and fundamental process during which the maternal environment of oocyte transits to the zygotic genome driven expression program, and terminally differentiated oocyte and sperm are reprogrammed to totipotency. It is initiated by maternal mRNAs and proteins during the period of zygotic genome quiescence after fertilization, followed by a gradual switch to zygotic genome activation and accompanied by clearance of maternal RNAs and proteins. A key question for embryonic development is how MZT process is regulated. Here we used a low-input proteomic analysis to measure the proteomic dynamics during early development of mouse maternal-to-zygotic transition.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine RNA (m6A) is the most abundant internal mRNA modification in mammals. While its role in the regulation of posttranscriptional gene expression is beginning to be unveiled, its function during development of complex organisms is poorly understood. Here, we identify Spenito as a novel member of the methyltransferase complex and show that m6A in Drosophila is necessary for proper synaptic growth, and in regulation of early steps of pre-mRNA splicing. Splicing of Sex-lethal and of its downstream targets are defective in animals lacking m6A, revealing also important roles in sex determination and dosage compensation. Finally, we implicate the nuclear m6A reader protein, YT521-B, as a crucial effector of m6A modifications in vivo. Altogether, our work provides important novel insights into m6A biology through identification and characterization of both m6A-writing and -reading proteins in Drosophila and their effects on splicing, neurogenesis and sex-determination within the context of the whole animal.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine RNA (m6A) is the most abundant internal mRNA modification in mammals. While its role in the regulation of posttranscriptional gene expression is beginning to be unveiled, its function during development of complex organisms is poorly understood. Here, we identify Spenito as a novel member of the methyltransferase complex and show that m6A in Drosophila is necessary for proper synaptic growth, and in regulation of early steps of pre-mRNA splicing. Splicing of Sex-lethal and of its downstream targets are defective in animals lacking m6A, revealing also important roles in sex determination and dosage compensation. Finally, we implicate the nuclear m6A reader protein, YT521-B, as a crucial effector of m6A modifications in vivo. Altogether, our work provides important novel insights into m6A biology through identification and characterization of both m6A-writing and -reading proteins in Drosophila and their effects on splicing, neurogenesis and sex-determination within the context of the whole animal.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine RNA (m6A) is the most abundant internal mRNA modification in mammals. While its role in the regulation of posttranscriptional gene expression is beginning to be unveiled, its function during development of complex organisms is poorly understood. Here, we identify Spenito as a novel member of the methyltransferase complex and show that m6A in Drosophila is necessary for proper synaptic growth, and in regulation of early steps of pre-mRNA splicing. Splicing of Sex-lethal and of its downstream targets are defective in animals lacking m6A, revealing also important roles in sex determination and dosage compensation. Finally, we implicate the nuclear m6A reader protein, YT521-B, as a crucial effector of m6A modifications in vivo. Altogether, our work provides important novel insights into m6A biology through identification and characterization of both m6A-writing and -reading proteins in Drosophila and their effects on splicing, neurogenesis and sex-determination within the context of the whole animal.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine RNA (m6A) is the most abundant internal mRNA modification in mammals. While its role in the regulation of posttranscriptional gene expression is beginning to be unveiled, its function during development of complex organisms is poorly understood. Here, we identify Spenito as a novel member of the methyltransferase complex and show that m6A in Drosophila is necessary for proper synaptic growth, and in regulation of early steps of pre-mRNA splicing. Splicing of Sex-lethal and of its downstream targets are defective in animals lacking m6A, revealing also important roles in sex determination and dosage compensation. Finally, we implicate the nuclear m6A reader protein, YT521-B, as a crucial effector of m6A modifications in vivo. Altogether, our work provides important novel insights into m6A biology through identification and characterization of both m6A-writing and -reading proteins in Drosophila and their effects on splicing, neurogenesis and sex-determination within the context of the whole animal.
Project description:Early vertebrate embryogenesis is characterized by extensive post-transcriptional regulation during the maternal-to-zygotic transition. The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications on mRNA has been shown to affect both translation and stability of transcripts. Here we investigate the m6A topology during early vertebrate embryogenesis and its association with RNA stability, translation efficiency and effect on miR-430 degradation kinetics. Notably, we find a strong association of m6A with cytoplasmic polyadenylation and translational efficiency prior to zygotic genome activation. Genes required for zygotic genome activation such as nanog and pou5f3 display dynamic m6A levels. After zygotic genome activation m6A is associated with improved stability and dampens the effect of miR-430 mediated degradation. Through sequence analyses we identified enrichment of motifs for RNA binding proteins involved in translational regulation and RNA degradation. We propose a role for m6A in multiple mRNA regulatory mechanisms, for the first time in an in vivo system and improve our understanding of the combinatorial code behind the complex post transcriptional regulation of reprogramming during early vertebrate development.
Project description:N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most abundant modifications in eukaryotic RNA. Recent mapping of m6A methylomes in mammals, yeast, and plants as well as characterization of m6A methyltransferases, demethylases, and binding proteins have revealed regulatory functions of this dynamic RNA modification. In bacteria, although m6A is present in ribosomal RNA (rRNA), its occurrence in messenger RNA (mRNA) still remains elusive. Here, we used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to calculate the m6A/A ratio in mRNA from a wide range of bacterial species, which demonstrates that m6A is an abundant mRNA modification in tested bacteria. Subsequent transcriptome-wide m6A profiling in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed a conserved distinct m6A pattern that is significantly different from that in eukaryotes. Most m6A peaks are located inside open reading frames (ORF), and carry a unique consensus motif (GCCAU). Functional enrichment analysis of bacterial m6A peaks indicates that the majority of m6A-modified transcripts are associated with respiration, amino acids metabolism, stress response, and small RNAs genes, suggesting potential regulatory roles of m6A in these pathways. m6A profiling in E.coli and P.aeruginosa mRNA