Transcriptome Profiling of m⁶A mRNA Modification in Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells Treated with <i>Escherichia coli</i>

• Main Authors: Ting Li, Changjie Lin, Yifan Zhu, Haojun Xu, Yiya Yin, Chaohao Wang, Xin Tang, Tongxing Song, Aizhen Guo, Yingyu Chen, Changmin Hu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: mastitis; MeRIP-seq; <i>E. coli</i>; m⁶A modification; <i>N</i>⁶-methyladenosine
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/12/6254
• ISSN: 1661-6596; 1422-0067

Mastitis is a common disease in dairy cows that is mostly caused by <i>E. coli</i>, and it brings massive losses to the dairy industry. <i>N</i>⁶-Methyladenosine (m⁶A), a methylation at the <i>N</i>⁶ position of RNA adenine, is a type of modification strongly associated with many diseases. However, the role of m⁶A in mastitis has not been investigated. In this study, we used MeRIP-seq to sequence the RNA of bovine mammary epithelial cells treated with inactivated <i>E. coli</i> for 24 h. In this in vitro infection model, there were 16,691 m⁶A peaks within 7066 mRNA transcripts in the Con group and 10,029 peaks within 4891 transcripts in the <i>E. coli</i> group. Compared with the Con group, 474 mRNAs were hypermethylated and 2101 mRNAs were hypomethylated in the <i>E. coli</i> group. Biological function analyses revealed differential m⁶A-modified genes mainly enriched in the MAPK, NF-κB, and TGF-β signaling pathways. In order to explore the relationship between m⁶A and mRNA expression, combined MeRIP-seq and mRNA-seq analyses revealed 212 genes with concomitant changes in the mRNA expression and m⁶A modification. This study is the first to present a map of RNA m⁶A modification in mastitis treated with <i>E. coli</i>, providing a basis for future research.