Post-transcriptional regulation associated with RNA modifications responsible for higher order biological processes

本项目旨在研究与高阶生物过程中RNA修饰相关的转录后调控。我们发现在小鼠睾丸中表达的piwi相互作用rna （piRNA）在其3‘端具有2’- o -甲基化，并表征了负责这种修饰的甲基转移酶。关于mRNA的修饰，我们注意到在人脑rna中大量引入的肌苷。我们建立了一种名为“肌苷化学擦除（ICE）”的生化方法，直接识别RNA链上的肌苷。我们已经绘制了人类大脑转录组中超过16,000个肌苷的新位点。此外，我们已经启动了使用ice方法结合深度测序（ICE-Seq）的全基因组肌苷位点鉴定项目。

This project aimed to study post-transcriptional regulation associated with RNA modifications responsible for higher order biological processes. We found that piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNA) expressed in mouse testis have 2'-O-methylation at their 3' termini, and characterized the methyltransferase responsible for this modification. Concerning mRNA modifications, we took notice on inosines that are abundantly introduced in RNAs from human brain. We have established a biochemical method, named "inosine chemical erasing (ICE)", to directly identify 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).