Nanopore direct RNA sequencing enables thedetection of post-transcriptional modificationsof mRNA in host cells linked to viral infection

October 30th, 2024

This poster was presented at both the Biomolecular Horizon Conference 2024 and the A-RNA Conference 2024.

This same poster was presented, with a different title, at the A-RNA conference 2024 in Melbourne. The alternate title is “Direct RNA sequencing via nanopore technology reveals mRNA post-transcriptional modifications in virus-infected host cells.”

Md Zohorul Islam#, Elizabeth Pharo, Brad Knox, Meaghan Heyward, Louise Ord, Marina Alexander, Sinéad Williams, Cameron Stewart.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Health and Biosecurity Business Unit, Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia
CSIRO, Scientific Computing, Information Management & Technology, Australia.

#Correspondence: mdzohorul.islam@csiro.au

Conclusion

Direct RNA sequencing shows important changes in RNA, such as m6A and m5C methylation, in host cells
infected by the influenza virus. These changes, especially in genes linked to the immune system, help explain how
the virus affects gene activity and RNA stability during the host defence response. Our study highlights how this
technology can detect detailed RNA modifications, giving us better insights into how the host cells and virus
interact.

References

Campos JHC, Alves GV, Maricato JT, Braconi CT, Antoneli FM, Janini LMR, Briones MRS. The epitranscriptome of Vero cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 assessed by direct RNA sequencing reveals m6A pattern changes and DRACH motif biases in viral and cellular RNAs. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Aug 16;12:906578. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.906578

Acera Mateos et al. 2024. Prediction of m6A and m5C at single-molecule resolution reveals a transcriptome-wide co-occurrence of RNA modifications. Nat Commun. 2024 May 9;15(1):3899. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47953-7.

Chang et al. 2022. Long-Read RNA Sequencing Identifies Polyadenylation Elongation and Differential Transcript Usage of Host Transcripts During SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro Infection. Front Immunol. 2022 Apr 6;13:832223. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.832223.