Transcriptome-wide N 6 -methyladenosine profiling of rice callus and leaf reveals the presence of tissue-specific competitors involved in selective mRNA modification

Among which, 626 and 5,509 TSMGs are actively expressed in both tissues but are selectively m 6 A-modified (SMGs) only in one of the 2 tissues. Further analyses reveal characteristics of SMGs: (1) Most SMGs are differentially expressed between callus and leaf. (2) Two conserved RNA-binding motifs, predicted to be recognized by PUM and RNP4F, are significantly over-represented in SMGs.

(3) GO enrichment analysis shows that SMGs in callus mainly participate in transcription regulator/factor activity whereas SMGs in leaf are mainly involved in plastid and thylakoid. Our results suggest the presence of tissue-specific competitors involved in SMGs. These findings provide a resource for plant RNA epitranscriptomic studies and further enlarge our knowledge on the function of RNA m 6 A modification.