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Front Cover: NAIL‐MS in E. coli Determines the Source and Fate of Methylation in tRNA (ChemBioChem 24/2018)
Author(s) -
Reichle Valentin F.,
Weber Verena,
Kellner Stefanie
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.201800719
Subject(s) - transfer rna , methylation , demethylation , chemistry , rna , biochemistry , dna methylation , dna , gene expression , gene
The front cover picture shows our desk as we were analyzing the repair of methylated nucleosides from tRNA. The white structure in the back is an L‐shaped tRNA, for which we used nucleic acid isotope labeling coupled mass spectrometry, NAIL‐MS, to distinguish enzymatic methylation from methylation damage in bacteria. We then followed the fate of the tRNA and the damaged nucleosides by a dynamic NAIL‐MS experiment in vivo. With our approach, we can clearly distinguish repair by tRNA degradation and by demethylation. In E. coli , we observed clear repair of 1‐methyladenosine (structure shown in the bottom right‐hand corner) and, for the first time, 3‐methylcytidine by active demethylation in vivo. In addition, we see a potential repair of 6‐methyladenosine but not 7‐methylguanosine in bacterial tRNA. NAIL‐MS is the first tool for following demethylation processes in vivo as it excludes the concurrent processes for removal of RNA methylation, namely RNA degradation, turnover and dilution. More information can be found in the full paper by S. Kellner et al. on page 2575 in Issue 24, 2018 (DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201800525).