Epigenetics

Methyltransferase

Transcriptome

Methylation

Bisulfite sequencing

Biology

Gene

N6-Methyladenosine

Gene expression

Computational biology

DNA methylation

Genetics

Nature Biotechnology

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant RNA modification in mammalian cells and the best-studied epitranscriptomic mark. Despite the development of various tools to map m6A, a transcriptome-wide method that enables absolute quantification of m6A at single-base resolution is lacking. Here we use glyoxal and nitrite-mediated deamination of unmethylated adenosines (GLORI) to develop an absolute m6A quantification method that is conceptually similar to bisulfite-sequencing-based quantification of DNA 5-methylcytosine. We apply GLORI to quantify the m6A methylomes of mouse and human cells and reveal clustered m6A modifications with differential distribution and stoichiometry. In addition, we characterize m6A dynamics under stress and examine the quantitative landscape of m6A modification in gene expression regulation. GLORI is an unbiased, convenient method for the absolute quantification of the m6A methylome. The m6A modification is mapped transcriptome-wide at single-base resolution in mammalian cells.

Absolute quantification of single-base m6A methylation in the mammalian transcriptome using GLORI