Mapping single-nucleotide m6A by m6A-REF-seq

Methods. 2022 Jul:203:392-398. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2021.06.013. Epub 2021 Jun 24.

Abstract

The past few years have witnessed rapid progress in the field of RNA modifications. As the most prevailing modification on eukaryotic mRNA, m6A is characterized to play a vital role in various cellular activities. However, limitations of the detection method impede functional studies of m6A. Here we introduce m6A-REF-seq, a powerful and straightforward method to identify m6A at single-nucleotide resolution. m6A-REF-seq relies on the recognition of RNA endonuclease MazF towards m6A at the ACA motif, providing an orthogonal method independent of the m6A antibody being adopted by most of current methods. We describe a detailed protocol to perform m6A-REF-seq, including NGS library construction and sequencing data analysis. In particular, we describe an optimized assay to validate individual m6A sites identified by m6A-REF-seq, which can also be applied to detect any candidate m6A sites.

Keywords: Epitranscriptome; RNA modification; Single-base resolution; m(6)A.

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine / analogs & derivatives*
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / methods
  • Nucleotides*
  • RNA*
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA* / methods

Substances

  • Nucleotides
  • RNA, Messenger
  • RNA
  • N-methyladenosine
  • Adenosine