Comprehensive analysis of transcriptome-wide M⁶A methylation for hepatic ischaemia reperfusion injury in mice

N6-Methyladenosine (m⁶A) plays key roles in the regulation of biological functions and cellular mechanisms for ischaemia reperfusion (IR) injury in different organs. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of m⁶A-modified mRNAs in hepatic IR injury. In mouse models, liver samples were subjected to methylated RNA immunoprecipitation with high-throughput sequencing (MeRIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). In total, 16917 m⁶A peaks associated with 4098 genes were detected in the sham group, whereas 21,557 m⁶A peaks associated with 5322 genes were detected in the IR group. There were 909 differentially expressed m⁶A peaks, 863 differentially methylated transcripts and 516 differentially m⁶A modification genes determined in both groups. The distribution of m⁶A peaks was especially enriched in the coding sequence and 3'UTR. Furthermore, we identified a relationship between differentially m⁶A methylated genes (fold change≥1.5/≤ 0.667, p value≤0.05) and differentially expressed genes (fold change≥1.5 and p value≤0.05) to obtain three overlapping predicted target genes (Fnip2, Phldb2, and Pcf11). Our study revealed a transcriptome-wide map of m⁶A mRNAs in hepatic IR injury and might provide a theoretical basis for future research in terms of molecular mechanisms.