Table 2 Impact of chosen mRNA modifications on plants
From: In search of the mRNA modification landscape in plants
Modified nucleotide | Abbreviation | Plant species | Impact on plant functioning and possible involvement in stress response |
|---|---|---|---|
N6-methyladenosine | m6A | Arabidopsis, rice | • m6A occurrence in transcripts associated with tissue specific function indicates its putative role in differentiation • Arabidopsis thaliana mutant with alerted methylation machinery show severe developmental defects including embryonic lethality, overgrown shoot epical meristem, changes in trichome, leaf and flower formation • YHT-domain proteins, known as m6A readers regulate lifetime of specific methylated mRNAs and are engaged in proper development of leaves and trichomes [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35] |
5-methylcytosine | m5C | Arabidpsis, rice, maize, barrelclover, foxtail millet | • Dependent on the activity of tRNA methyltransferase 4 (TRM4). The trm4 mutants show decreased cell proliferation, hampered roots growth and increased sensitivity to oxidative stress • The level of m5C is modulated by stress factors (heat and drought) and phytohormones (auxins, abscisic acid and cytokinins) [36, 37] |
8-hydoxyguanine; (8-hydroxy-2′-guanosine) | 8-OHG | sunflower, wheat, soybean, Arabidopsis | • Selective oxidation of defined transcripts leads to hampered translation and decreased level of encoded proteins • Involved in breakage of seeds dormancy • Increase in 8-OHG levels in total RNA and/or mRNA constitutes an early response to stress factors: cadmium in soybean and nematode infection in Arabidopsis [47,48,49,50] |
8-nitroguanine | 8-NO2-G | Potato | • Overaccumulation of 8-NO2-G in total RNA and mRNA represents an early event preceding or coincident with the first symptoms of programmed cell death during hypersensitive response of potato leaves inoculated with P. infestans [62] |