TY - JOUR

T1 - N4-acetylation of cytidine in mRNA plays essential roles in plants

AU - Wang, Wenlei

AU - Liu, Huijie

AU - Wang, Feifei

AU - Liu, Xiaoye

AU - Sun, Yu

AU - Zhao, Jie

AU - Zhu, Changhua

AU - Gan, Lijun

AU - Yu, Jinping

AU - Witte, Claus Peter

AU - Chen, Mingjia

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank Jialei Wang for her help with mass spectrometry analyses, Christel Schmiechen for her assistance with seedling phenotype analyses, and Markus Niehaus for his help with statistical analyses. This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number YDZX2023013]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31900907]; the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China [grant number BK20190528]; the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology [grant number CRP/CHN20-04_EC]; the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [grant numbers CH2292/1-1 to M.C. and C.-P.W, WI3411/8-1, and INST 187/741-1 FUGG to C.-P.W.]; the Special Fund on Technology Innovation of Carbon Dioxide Peaking and Carbon Neutrality of Jiangsu Province [grant number BE2022306 to J.Y.]; and the start-up fund for advanced talents from Nanjing Agricultural University to M.C.

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - The biological function of RNA can be modulated by base modifications. Here, we unveiled the occurrence of N4-acetylation of cytidine in plant RNA, including mRNA, by employing LC-MS/MS and acRIP-seq. We identified 325 acetylated transcripts from the leaves of 4-week-old Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants and determined that 2 partially redundant N-ACETYLTRANSFERASEs FOR CYTIDINE IN RNA (ACYR1 and ACYR2), which are homologous to mammalian NAT10, are required for acetylating RNA in vivo. A double-null mutant was embryo lethal, while eliminating 3 of the 4 ACYR alleles led to defects in leaf development. These phenotypes could be traced back to the reduced acetylation and concomitant destabilization of the transcript of TOUGH, which is required for miRNA processing. These findings indicate that N4-acetylation of cytidine is a modulator of RNA function with a critical role in plant development and likely many other processes.

AB - The biological function of RNA can be modulated by base modifications. Here, we unveiled the occurrence of N4-acetylation of cytidine in plant RNA, including mRNA, by employing LC-MS/MS and acRIP-seq. We identified 325 acetylated transcripts from the leaves of 4-week-old Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants and determined that 2 partially redundant N-ACETYLTRANSFERASEs FOR CYTIDINE IN RNA (ACYR1 and ACYR2), which are homologous to mammalian NAT10, are required for acetylating RNA in vivo. A double-null mutant was embryo lethal, while eliminating 3 of the 4 ACYR alleles led to defects in leaf development. These phenotypes could be traced back to the reduced acetylation and concomitant destabilization of the transcript of TOUGH, which is required for miRNA processing. These findings indicate that N4-acetylation of cytidine is a modulator of RNA function with a critical role in plant development and likely many other processes.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172739894&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/plcell/koad189

DO - 10.1093/plcell/koad189

M3 - Article

C2 - 37367221

AN - SCOPUS:85172739894

VL - 35

SP - 3739

EP - 3756

JO - PLANT CELL

JF - PLANT CELL

SN - 1040-4651

IS - 10

ER -