Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

Abstract

N⁶-methyladenosine Modification in Bacterial mRNA

Ruxia Gao, Heng Shi, Yingchao Zhang, Xiaolong Shao and Xin Deng

Among more than 140 naturally occurring RNA modifications have been identified, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant messenger RNA (mRNA) modification in eukaryotic organisms. A group of demethylases, methyltransferase and m6A-specific binding proteins in mammals, plants as well as yeast are in support of the regulatory functions of this RNA modification. Recent years, with the fast development of purification methods and detecting techniques, researchers have extended the range of RNA epigenetics from the rRNA and tRNA modification to the field of mRNA and ncRNA in eukaryotes. However, we have little understanding of m6A modification in bacteria RNA, particularly mRNA. This review summarizes the recent research advances of eukaryotic m6A modification, and outlines the optimized analysis techniques together with recent progress on m6A modification in bacterial mRNA