Dual Roles of m⁶A Modification: Orchestrating Development and Abiotic Stress Resilience in Plants

Area of Science:

• Plant molecular biology and epitranscriptomics.
• Focus on RNA modifications and their regulatory roles in plants.

Background:

• RNA N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is a crucial epitranscriptomic modification.
• m⁶A influences fundamental plant processes like growth, development, and adaptation to environmental stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize recent advancements in understanding m⁶A molecular mechanisms and biological functions in plants.
• To provide systematic insights into the complexity and specificity of m⁶A regulation.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on m⁶A regulators (writers, erasers, readers) and their impact on RNA.
• Analysis of m⁶A's role in developmental processes and abiotic stress responses.
• Exploration of crosstalk between m⁶A and histone modifications, phase separation, and RNA dynamics.

Main Results:

• m⁶A landscape is dynamically regulated by methyltransferases, demethylases, and m⁶A-binding proteins.
• m⁶A influences mRNA stability, translation, alternative polyadenylation, and chromatin crosstalk.
• m⁶A integrates diverse developmental processes and abiotic stress responses, showing species- and tissue-specific plasticity.

Conclusions:

• m⁶A acts as a critical regulatory layer in plants, connecting development and stress adaptation.
• Bidirectional crosstalk with histone modifications and emerging concepts like phase separation highlight regulatory complexity.
• Further research is needed to understand translation initiation, upstream regulation, and specific m⁶A site functions for crop improvement.