Standardizing data reporting in the research community to enhance the utility of open data for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance.

SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in wastewater is being rapidly developed and adopted as a public health monitoring tool worldwide. With wastewater surveillance programs being implemented across many different scales and by many different stakeholders, it is critical that data collected and shared are accompanied by an appropriate minimal amount of metainformation to enable meaningful interpretation and use of this new information source and intercomparison across datasets. While some databases are being developed for specific surveillance programs locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, common globally-adopted data standards have not yet been established within the research community.

YTHDF2 destabilizes mA-modified neural-specific RNAs to restrain differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells.

-methyladenosine (mA) is an abundant post-transcriptional modification that can impact RNA fate via interactions with mA-specific RNA binding proteins. Despite accumulating evidence that mA plays an important role in modulating pluripotency, the influence of mA reader proteins in pluripotency is less clear. Here, we report that YTHDF2, an mA reader associated with mRNA degradation, is highly expressed in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and down-regulated during neural differentiation.

Small changes, big implications: The impact of mA RNA methylation on gene expression in pluripotency and development.

In order to maintain a state of self-renewal, yet retain the ability to rapidly differentiate in response to external signals, pluripotent cells exert tight control over gene expression at many levels. Recent studies have suggested that N6-methyladenosine (mA) RNA methylation, one of the most abundant post-transcriptional modifications, is important for both pluripotency and differentiation. In this review, we summarize the current state of the mA field, with emphasis on the impact of writers, erasers and readers of mA on RNA metabolism and stem cell biology.

Engineered viral RNA decay intermediates to assess XRN1-mediated decay.

Both RNA synthesis and decay must be balanced within a cell to achieve proper gene expression. Additionally, modulation of RNA decay specifically offers the cell an opportunity to rapidly reshape the transcriptome in response to specific stimuli or cues. Therefore, it is critical to understand the underlying mechanisms through which RNA decay contribute to gene expression homeostasis.