Exploring m⁶A and m⁵C Epitranscriptomes upon Viral Infection: an Example with HIV

The role of RNA modifications in biological processes has been the focus of an increasing number of studies in the last few years and is known nowadays as epitranscriptomics. Among others, N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) and 5-methylcytosine (m⁵C) RNA modifications have been described on mRNA molecules and may have a role in modulating cellular processes. Epitranscriptomics is thus a new layer of regulation that must be considered in addition to transcriptomic analyses, as it can also be altered or modulated by exposure to any chemical or biological agent, including viral infections.

Here, we present a workflow that allows analysis of the joint cellular and viral epitranscriptomic landscape of the m⁶A and m⁵C marks simultaneously, in cells infected or not with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Upon mRNA isolation and fragmentation from HIV- infected and non-infected cells, we used two different procedures: MeRIP-Seq, an RNA immunoprecipitation-based technique, to enrich for RNA fragments containing the m⁶A mark and BS-Seq, a bisulfite conversion-based technique, to identify the m⁵C mark at a single nucleotide resolution. Upon methylation-specific capture, RNA libraries are prepared for high-throughput sequencing. We also developed a dedicated bioinformatics pipeline to identify differentially methylated (DM) transcripts independently from their basal expression profile.

Overall, the methodology allows exploration of multiple epitranscriptomic marks simultaneously and provides an atlas of DM transcripts upon viral infection or any other cell perturbation. This approach offers new opportunities to identify novel players and novel mechanisms of cell response, such as cellular factors promoting or restricting viral replication.