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Updated: Jan 24, 2026

iCLIP - Transcriptome-wide Mapping of Protein-RNA Interactions with Individual Nucleotide Resolution
Published on: April 30, 2011
Nucleotide resolution sequencing of N4-acetylcytidine in RNA
Justin M Thomas1, Keri M Bryson1, Jordan L Meier1
1Chemical Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, United States.
Abstract:
Posttranscriptional modifications of RNA represent an emerging class of regulatory elements in human biology. Improved methods for studying how these elements are controlled and where they occur has the potential to transform our understanding of gene expression in development and disease. Here we describe a chemical method for nucleotide resolution sequencing of N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C), a highly conserved modified nucleobase whose formation is catalyzed by the essential cytidine acetyltransferase enzyme NAT10. This approach enables the sensitive, PCR-amplifiable detection of individual ac4C sites from nanograms of unfractionated cellular RNA. The sensitive and quantitative nature of this assay provides a powerful tool to understand how cytidine acetylation is targeted, profile RNA acetyltransferase dynamics, and validate the sites and stoichiometry of ac4C in novel RNA species.
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