A potentially abundant junctional RNA motif stabilized by m⁶A and Mg²

N⁶-Methyladenosine (m⁶A) is an abundant post-transcriptional RNA modification that influences multiple aspects of gene expression. In addition to recruiting proteins, m⁶A can modulate RNA function by destabilizing base pairing. Here, we show that when neighbored by a 5' bulge, m⁶A stabilizes m⁶A-U base pairs, and global RNA structure by ~1 kcal mol^-1. The bulge most likely provides the flexibility needed to allow optimal stacking between the methyl group and 3' neighbor through a conformation that is stabilized by Mg²⁺. A bias toward this motif can help explain the global impact of methylation on RNA structure in transcriptome-wide studies. While m⁶A embedded in duplex RNA is poorly recognized by the YTH domain reader protein and m⁶A antibodies, both readily recognize m⁶A in this newly identified motif. The results uncover potentially abundant and functional m⁶A motifs that can modulate the epitranscriptomic structure landscape with important implications for the interpretation of transcriptome-wide data.