Themed collection The Epitranscriptome

Ralph Kleiner (Princeton University, USA), Claudia Höbartner (University of Würzburg, Germany) and Guifang Jia (Peking University, China) introduce the themed collection on ‘The Epitranscriptome’.

In search for new RNA modifications in E. coli tRNA we elucidated a disulfide-bridged dimer of 4-thiouridine which was identified as an ex vivo artifact and is formed during sample handling in the presence of ambient oxygen.

N ⁴-Allylcytidine, a new nucleoside analogue, can be applied to label RNA via various fashions and then be post-identified at base resolution by iodination-mediated chemical sequencing.

Nanopore direct RNA sequencing assisted by pseudouridine- and m⁵C-specific bisulfite treatment is a technology that allows sequencing for epitranscriptomic modifications with the possibility of quantitative assessment.

Metabolic labelling of RNA in human cell culture results in hybrid RNA species which can act to improve the temporal resolution of RNA modification dynamics studies.

Four new mRNA modifications were detected in S. cerevisiae by integrating an improved LC-MS/MS approach with an enhanced mRNA purification and validation process. Codons containing these modifications were further identified to impede translation.

In light of recent discoveries of noncanonical RNA caps, we studied substrate specificity of potential plant RNA decapping enzymes - NudiXes. We have found that some are very selective, while others function as general RNA decapping enzymes.

Adenosine deaminases acting on RNAs (ADARs) can be directed to correct RNA mutations with complementary guide strands. We introduce nucleoside analogs at the −1 position of the guide RNA to enhance target editing and decrease off-target editing.