N -Methyladenosine modification of mRNA contributes to the transition from 2D to 3D growth in the moss Physcomitrium patens.

Plants colonized the land approximately 470 million years ago, coinciding with the development of apical cells that divide in three planes. The molecular mechanisms that underly the development of the 3D growth pattern are poorly understood, mainly because 3D growth in seed plants starts during embryo development. In contrast, the transition from 2D to 3D growth in the moss Physcomitrium patens has been widely studied, and it involves a large turnover of the transcriptome to allow the establishment of stage-specific transcripts that facilitate this developmental transition.

A birds'-eye view of the activity and specificity of the mRNA m A methyltransferase complex.

Appropriate control of the transcriptome is essential to regulate different aspects of gene expression during development and in response to environmental stimuli. Fast accumulating reports are recognizing and functionally characterizing several types of modifications across transcripts, which have created a new field of RNA study named epitranscriptomics. The most abundant modification found in messenger RNA (mRNA) is N6-methyladenosine (m A).