Application

Metabolomics

General description

1-Methyladenosine, also known as M1A, belongs to the class of organic compounds known as purine nucleosides. Purine nucleosides are compounds comprising a purine base attached to a ribosyl or deoxyribosyl moiety. 1-Methyladenosine is a strong basic compound (based on its pKa). Precise m6A mapping by m6A-CLIP/IP (briefly m6A-CLIP) revealed that a majority of m6A locates in the last exon of mRNAs in multiple tissues/cultured cells of mouse and human, and the m6A enrichment around stop codons is a coincidence that many stop codons locate round the start of last exons where m6A is truly enriched. The methylation of adenosine is directed by a large m6A methyltransferase complex containing METTL3 as the SAM-binding sub-unit. Insulin-like growth factor-2 mRNA-binding proteins 1, 2, and 3 (IGF2BP1–3) are reported as a novel class of m6A readers.