Transcriptome-Wide Mapping of RNA 5-Methylcytosine in Arabidopsis mRNAs and Noncoding RNAs

Author Profile

Rakesh David

Highlighted Paper: David et al et al. (2017). Transcriptome-wide Mapping of RNA 5-Methylcytosine in Arabidopsis mRNAs and non-coding RNAs. Plant Cell. Advance Publication January 6, 2017; doi:10.1105/tpc.16.00719.

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, University of Adelaide.

Education: PhD, Plant Molecular Biology, Plant Science Division, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Australia.

Non-scientific Interests: Cycling, cricket, movies and reading.

My interest in the area of gene regulation first began during my Masters project in Bernie Carroll's lab (University of Queensland, Australia) that investigated small non-coding RNAs as epigenetic regulators of gene expression. During my PhD study (Josette Masle's lab, Australian National University), I further pursued my interests in gene regulation, this time focusing on a family of kinases critical to plant development and pathogen response. After graduating, I realized that in order to fully appreciate the intricate ways plants fine-tune gene regulation, I had to take a step back and tackle this issue at the transcriptome level. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to do this in Iain Searle's lab (corresponding author, University of Adelaide) where I joined as a postdoctoral researcher. Iain was interested in post-transcriptional RNA modifications, particularly 5-methylcytosine (m5C), and sought to map this modification in the transcriptome of the model plant species Arabidopsis. Using bisulfite conversion and Illumina sequencing (bsRNA-seq), hundreds of m5C sites were mapped and a key enzyme mediating methylation of those sites, TRM4B, was identified. We showed that TRM4B is important in regulating cell division and the oxidative stress response, functions that are mirrored in orthologs of other eukaryotes, highlighting the conserved nature of m5C modification through evolution. I believe the field of RNA modifications or epitranscriptomics provides another regulatory layer of gene regulation, the implications of which are only beginning to be understood.