YTH Domain Proteins: A Family of m6A Readers in Cancer Progression

Yirong Xu; Wei Zhang; Feng Shen; Xi Yang; Huilan Liu; Shengbin Dai; Xinchen Sun; Junxing Huang; Qing Guo

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.629560

YTH Domain Proteins: A Family of m⁶A Readers in Cancer Progression

Front Oncol. 2021 Feb 22:11:629560. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.629560. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yirong Xu^{1

2}, Wei Zhang¹, Feng Shen³, Xi Yang⁴, Huilan Liu¹, Shengbin Dai¹, Xinchen Sun⁵, Junxing Huang¹, Qing Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Taizhou People's Hospital, Taizhou, China.
² Graduate school, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, Taizhou People's Hospital, Taizhou, China.
⁴ Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

N ⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is the most abundant internal modification in eukaryotic messenger RNAs (mRNAs). m⁶A RNA methylation is involved in all stages of RNA life cycle, from RNA processing, nuclear output, translation regulation to RNA degradation, indicating that m⁶A has various functions affecting RNA metabolism positively or negatively. Reading proteins are vital in regulating the translation and stability of m⁶A mRNAs positively or negatively. Recent studies have enhanced the understanding of the molecular mechanism of the YT521-B homology (YTH) domain family and the modification of m⁶A. This study aimed to review the specific mechanisms, functions, and interactions of the YTH domain protein family. It also discussed future research directions, thus providing new ideas for the clinical diagnosis and targeted therapy of cancer.

Keywords: YTH domain; YTHDC1-2; YTHDF1-3; cancer; m6A modification.

Publication types

Review