Skip to main content

High-Throughput Small RNA Sequencing Enhanced by AlkB-Facilitated RNA de-Methylation (ARM-Seq)

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
RNA Methylation

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1562))

Abstract

N 1-methyladenosine (m1A), N 3-methylcytidine (m3C), and N 1-methylguanosine (m1G) are common in transfer RNA (tRNA) and tRNA-derived fragments. These modifications alter Watson-Crick base-pairing, and cause pauses or stops during reverse transcription required for most high-throughput RNA sequencing protocols, resulting in inefficient detection of methyl-modified RNAs. Here, we describe a procedure to demethylate RNAs containing m1A, m3C, or m1G using the Escherichia coli dealkylating enzyme AlkB, along with instructions for subsequent processing with widely used protocols for small RNA sequencing.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Machnicka MA, Milanowska K, Osman Oglou O, Purta E, Kurkowska M, Olchowik A, Januszewski W, Kalinowski S, Dunin-Horkawicz S, Rother KM, Helm M, Bujnicki JM, Grosjean H (2013) MODOMICS: a database of RNA modification pathways--2013 update. Nucleic Acids Res 41(Database issue):D262–D267. doi:10.1093/nar/gks1007

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Motorin Y, Muller S, Behm-Ansmant I, Branlant C (2007) Identification of modified residues in RNAs by reverse transcription-based methods. Methods Enzymol 425:21–53. doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(07)25002-5

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Delaney JC, Essigmann JM (2004) Mutagenesis, genotoxicity, and repair of 1-methyladenine, 3-alkylcytosines, 1-methylguanine, and 3-methylthymine in alkB Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101(39):14051–14056. doi:10.1073/pnas.0403489101

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Aas PA, Otterlei M, Falnes PO, Vagbo CB, Skorpen F, Akbari M, Sundheim O, Bjoras M, Slupphaug G, Seeberg E, Krokan HE (2003) Human and bacterial oxidative demethylases repair alkylation damage in both RNA and DNA. Nature 421(6925):859–863. doi:10.1038/nature01363

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Falnes PO (2004) Repair of 3-methylthymine and 1-methylguanine lesions by bacterial and human AlkB proteins. Nucleic Acids Res 32(21):6260–6267. doi:10.1093/nar/gkh964

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. D’Silva S, Haider SJ, Phizicky EM (2011) A domain of the actin binding protein Abp140 is the yeast methyltransferase responsible for 3-methylcytidine modification in the tRNA anti-codon loop. RNA 17(6):1100–1110. doi:10.1261/rna.2652611

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Cozen AE, Quartley E, Holmes AD, Hrabeta-Robinson E, Phizicky EM, Lowe TM (2015) ARM-seq: AlkB-facilitated RNA methylation sequencing reveals a complex landscape of modified tRNA fragments. Nat Methods 12(9):879–884. doi:10.1038/nmeth.3508

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Love MI, Huber W, Anders S (2014) Moderated estimation of fold change and dispersion for RNA-seq data with DESeq2. Genome Biol 15(12):550. doi:10.1186/s13059-014-0550-8

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Quartley E, Alexandrov A, Mikucki M, Buckner FS, Hol WG, DeTitta GT, Phizicky EM, Grayhack EJ (2009) Heterologous expression of L. major proteins in S. cerevisiae: a test of solubility, purity, and gene recoding. J Struct Funct Genomics 10(3):233–247. doi:10.1007/s10969-009-9068-9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) NHGRI grant 5R01HG006753 to T.M.L. and by NIH grant GM052347 to E.M.P. Thanks are given to Patricia Chan for the assistance in the preparation of the figures.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Todd M. Lowe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Hrabeta-Robinson, E., Marcus, E., Cozen, A.E., Phizicky, E.M., Lowe, T.M. (2017). High-Throughput Small RNA Sequencing Enhanced by AlkB-Facilitated RNA de-Methylation (ARM-Seq). In: Lusser, A. (eds) RNA Methylation. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1562. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6807-7_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6807-7_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6805-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6807-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics