Fig. 5. The role of m⁶A in X-to-autosome dosage compensation.

m⁶A acts as a selective degradation signal on autosomal transcripts and thereby contributes to X-to-autosome dosage compensation. Transcripts from the autosomes are transcribed from two active chromosomes, leading to higher transcript copy numbers per autosomal gene than for X-chromosomal genes. m⁶A is selectively enriched on transcripts from autosomes, leading to their destabilization and degradation. Because m⁶A is not enriched on X-chromosomal transcripts, this leads to an equal dosage between autosomal and X-chromosomal transcripts. m⁶A thereby contributes to X-to-autosome dosage compensation.