2. Academic Validation
  3. N6-methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO

N6-methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO

  • Nat Chem Biol. 2011 Oct 16;7(12):885-7. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.687.
Guifang Jia 1,  Ye Fu,  Xu Zhao,  Qing Dai,  Guanqun Zheng,  Ying Yang,  Chengqi Yi,  Tomas Lindahl,  Tao Pan,  Yun-Gui Yang,  Chuan He
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
PMID: 22002720 DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.687
Abstract

We report here that fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) has efficient oxidative demethylation activity targeting the abundant N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) residues in RNA in vitro. FTO knockdown with siRNA led to increased amounts of m(6)A in mRNA, whereas overexpression of FTO resulted in decreased amounts of m(6)A in human cells. We further show the partial colocalization of FTO with nuclear speckles, which supports the notion that m(6)A in nuclear RNA is a major physiological substrate of FTO.

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