3.6 BPH infestation regulated m6A-methylated genes in rice
The number of transcripts decreased with increasing number of m6A modification sites, and most differentially expressed transcripts containing m6A modifications had single digit m6A sites (Supporting Information: Figure S10). A total of 4.19%, 77.36%, and 18.45% of the m6A sites were located on the 5′-UTR, CDS, and 3′-UTR of the differential expressed transcripts in Nl-Nip vs. Nip comparison, respectively. Compared with the distribution regions of m6A sites in each treatment group, the distribution of these sites tended to be enriched from the 3′-UTR to CDS regions (Figure 2g).
Differential m6A-methylated transcripts were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) (Supporting Information: Figure S11a) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses (Supporting Information: Figure S11b). Methylated genes were involved in multiple molecular functions, particularly in structural constituents of ribosomes, translation, and ATP hydrolysis (Supporting Information: Figure S11a, Table S7). The top 25 enriched pathways in KEGG analyses were divided into two categories: genetic information processing and metabolism (Supporting Information: Figure S11b, Table S8). Thus, m6A modification is closely related to intracellular metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and secondary metabolite synthesis/metabolism/degradation upon BPH infestation.