Temporal Profiling of Epitranscriptomic Modulators during Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Osteogenesis is modulated by multiple regulatory networks. Recent studies showed that RNA modifications and their reader, writer, and eraser (RWE) proteins are involved in regulating various biological processes. Few studies, however, were conducted to investigate the functions of RNA modifications and their RWE proteins in osteogenesis. By using LC-MS/MS in parallel-reaction monitoring (PRM) mode, we performed a comprehensive quantitative assessment of 154 epitranscriptomic RWE proteins throughout the entire time course of osteogenic differentiation in H9 human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We found that approximately half of the 127 detected RWE proteins were down-regulated during osteogenic differentiation, and they included mainly proteins involved in RNA methylation and pseudouridylation. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis unveiled significant associations between the down-regulated epitranscriptomic RWE proteins and osteogenesis-related proteins. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of publicly available RNA-seq data obtained from osteogenesis imperfecta patients suggested a potential role of METTL1 in osteogenesis through the cytokine network. Together, this is the first targeted profiling of epitranscriptomic RWE proteins during osteogenic differentiation of human ESCs, and our work unveiled potential regulatory roles of these proteins in osteogenesis. LC-MS/MS data were deposited on ProteomeXchange (PXD039249).