Functional studies and biogenesis of RNA modifications

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This project aimed to study on functional aspects and biogenesis of post-transcriptional modifications of RNA molecules associated with various biological processes. We employed a systematic genome-wide screen of genes responsible for biogenesis of RNA modifications using RNA mass spectrometry combined with reverse genetic approach. We identified novel genes responsible for synthesizing 2-thiouridine, wybutosine, lysidine and N4-acetylcytidine that are found in tRNAs from E. coli or S. cerevisiae. For identification of inosines in mRNAs from human brain, we have established a biochemical method, named "inosine chemical erasing (ICE)", to directly detect inosines on RNA strands. We have mapped more than 16,000 novel sites of inosines in human brain transcriptome. Furthermore, we have started a project of genome-wide identification of inosine sites by using the ICE-method combined with the deep sequencing (ICE-Seq).