Poster abstracts
Poster number 90 submitted by Luke Miller
Development of novel tools to characterize mRNA chemical modifications
Luke Miller (University of Michigan, Program in Chemical Biology), Kristin S. Koutmou (University of Michigan, Department of Chemistry)
Abstract:
The combined application of high-throughput tools to rapidly quantify nucleoside modification levels with RNA-seq based technologies for mapping the location of modifications transcriptome-wide form a powerful approach for the discovery and characterization of modified nucleosides in mRNAs. We are using such an approach to broadly screen and characterize mRNA modifications. Ultimately, our goal is to create and adapt methods for high resolution, quantitative characterization of the mRNA epitranscriptome. We have performed a high-throughput UHPLC MS/MS screen for mRNA modifications, and identified three potential previously unreported mRNA modifications. Currently, we are undertaking UHPLC-MS/MS studies to investigate the levels of these modifications in mRNAs purified from yeast cells containing or lacking enzymes that we hypothesize are responsible for incorporating the additional modifications that we have identified. Furthermore, we are developing a method for mapping the location of an mRNA modification that we previously reported (5-formylcytidine) to the transcriptome. Ultimately, this work has the potential to further our understanding of mRNA modifications by discovering and quantitatively characterizing new nucleoside modifications in protein coding RNAs.
Keywords: mRNA, Epitranscriptome, mRNA modifications