Figure 1.

The patterns and functions of m⁶A methylation. The m⁶A methylation, occurs at the sixth N atom of RNA adenine, is installed by methyltransferase and erased by demethylase in the nucleus. The m⁶A readers that preferentially recognize m⁶A-containing RNA can impact the fate of the methylated RNA and give diverse regulatory function. In the nucleus, combination of m⁶A with hnRNP proteins or YTHDC1 can affect splicing of pre-mRNAs and combination with YTHDC1 mediates the export of methylated mRNA. In addition, combination with hnRNPA2B1 facilitates the processing of methylated pri-miRNA. In cytoplasm, YTHDF1, YTHDC2 and eIF3 bind to the methylated mRNAs to promote translation. YTHDF2, YTHDC1 and YTHDC2 bind to the methylated mRNAs to accelerate decay. Furthermore YTHDF3 combining with the YTHDF1 can promote targeted mRNA translation and combining with YTHDF2 can accelerate degradation. More m⁶A readers and other functions need to identify in m⁶A-modified mRNA.