Identification of epitranscriptomic methylation marker genes in Arabidopsis and their expression profiling in response to developmental, anatomical, and environmental modulations

Abstract

RNA methylation has already conquered attention in cancer research and anticipated a similar contribution in plant stress modulation mechanism. Among all kinds of mRNA methylation, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications are ubiquitous and conserved, making m6A regulatory genes worthwhile to investigate. This present study aims to identify m6A regulatory genes in Arabidopsis and their correlation with stress conditions. A total of 29 m6A regulatory genes (6 writers, 6 erasers, and 17 readers) were identified in Arabidopsis that encode 55 proteins (8 writers, 14 erasers, and 33 readers). Among these 29 identified genes, one eraser gene pair and two reader gene pairs are found to have segmental duplication. Most of the m6A regulatory genes are highly expressed in callus tissue. In senescence, writers and readers are shown higher expression than erasers. In wounding stress, all six writers such as AtMTA, AtMTB, AtMTC, AtHAKAI, AtVIRILIZER, and AtFIP37 were constantly downregulated; two readers AtCPSF30-L3, and AtECT10 were constantly up-regulated and three erasers such as AtALKBH9A, AtALKBH10A, and AtALKBH8B were down-regulated in both early and late stages. Differential expression pattern of m6A regulatory genes have substantiated their significant correlation in the stress modulation pathway and demands further investigation. This study will encourage researchers to functionally validate and elucidate the molecular mechanism of plants utilizing RNA methylation in stress tolerance, thus, will facilitate crop engineering.