2025/08/04 by Anrui Liu, Zhengyi Huo, Zihe Xu +8 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #RNA modifications and cancer #RNA Research and Splicing #Cancer-related gene regulation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s42003-025-08623-6
openalex publication_date 2025/08/04 · openalex created_date 2025/08/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Increasing evidence shows that folate can regulate neural gene function through DNA modification, while regulatory roles of folate in neural RNA modification remain largely unknown. Here we show that folate treatment significantly increased Drosophila mRNA m6A levels. RNA methylation analysis indicates that carbon metabolism pathways and neural pathways are the mainly affected pathways by folate. Folate can increase mRNA m6A modification through carbon metabolic pathway in human cells, especially in neural cells. We also show that folate treatment can significantly increase the expression of m6A-related proteins (METTL3, METTL14) and neural mRNA m6A methylation levels in mice brain. Moreover, we find that folate-producing Lactobacillus plantarum can increase host mRNA m6A modification after colonization. In conclusion, we demonstrate that folate participates in mRNA m6A modification through carbon metabolic pathway in both Drosophila and mammals, and our results suggest that folate has a significant effect on neural-related genes and pathways. RNA epitranscriptome analysis indicates the role of folate and folate-producing Lactobacillus plantarum in regulating neural mRNA m6A modification through carbon metabolism pathways in both Drosophila and mammals.