Transcriptome-wide N6-methyladenosine modification profiling of mRNAs during infection of Newcastle disease virus in chicken macrophages.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification, the most prevalent post-transcriptional modification of eukaryotic mRNAs, is reported to play a crucial role in viral infection. However, the role of m6A modification during Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection has remained unclear. In this study, we performed MeRIP-seq to investigate the transcriptome-wide m6A methylome and m6A-modified genes in NDV-infected chicken macrophages. A total of 9496 altered peaks were identified, of which 7015 peaks were significantly upregulated across 3320 genes, and 2481 peaks were significantly down-regulated across 1264 genes. Combined analysis of m6A peaks and mRNA expression showed that 1234 mRNAs had significantly altered levels of methylation and expression after NDV infection, and m6A modification tended to have a negative relationship with mRNA expression, suggesting that m6A modification may regulate the process of NDV infection by regulating gene expression, particularly of the genes important in the innate immune response. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive characterization of m6A patterns in chicken macrophage mRNA after NDV infection, providing a valuable basis for further exploring the role of m6A modification mechanisms during the course of NDV infection.