Arabidopsism6A demethylase activity modulates viral infection of a plant virus and the m6A abundance in its genomic RNAs

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1703139114
• Publication Date: 2017-09-19T01:00:20Z
• Authors: Mireya Martínez-P...; Frederic Aparicio; Maria Pilar López...; Jose María Bellés; Jesus A. Sánchez-...; Vicente Pallás
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Adenosine; Arabidopsis Proteins; Alfalfa mosaic virus; Arabidopsis; AlkB Homolog 5, RNA Demethylase; RNA, Viral; Genome, Viral; Genomics; 3. Good health

SignificanceN6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification has been found to constitute an important regulatory mechanism in RNA biology. Unlike mammals and yeast, no component of the m6A cellular machinery has been described in plants at present. Although the influence of the m6A cellular machinery has been suspected to occur in the plant virus cycle, it has never been proved. Here we have identified a plant protein with m6A demethylase activity (atALKBH9B) and demonstrate that this protein removes m6A modification from RNA in vitro. Remarkably, we found that m6A abundance on the viral genome of alfalfa mosaic virus is influenced by atALKBH9B activity and regulates viral infection. This study extends the vast repertoire that plants exploit to control cytoplasmic-replicating RNA viruses.