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  • N6-methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO.

N6-methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO.

Nature chemical biology (2011-10-18)
Guifang Jia, Ye Fu, Xu Zhao, Qing Dai, Guanqun Zheng, Ying Yang, Chengqi Yi, Tomas Lindahl, Tao Pan, Yun-Gui Yang, Chuan He
PMID22002720
ABSTRACT

We report here that fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) has efficient oxidative demethylation activity targeting the abundant N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) residues in RNA in vitro. FTO knockdown with siRNA led to increased amounts of m(6)A in mRNA, whereas overexpression of FTO resulted in decreased amounts of m(6)A in human cells. We further show the partial colocalization of FTO with nuclear speckles, which supports the notion that m(6)A in nuclear RNA is a major physiological substrate of FTO.