Sensitive and Simultaneous Determination of Uridine Thiolation and Hydroxylation Modifications in Eukaryotic RNA by Derivatization Coupled with Mass Spectrometry Analysis
作者:Yi Dai、Chu-Bo Qi、Yang Feng、Qing-Yun Cheng、Fei-Long Liu、Ming-Yu Cheng、Bi-Feng Yuan、Yu-Qi Feng
DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04630
日期:2021.5.11
The discovery of dynamic and reversible modifications in RNA expands their functional repertoires. Now, RNA modifications have been viewed as new regulators involved in a variety of biological processes. Among these modifications, thiolation is one kind of special modification in RNA. Several thiouridines have been identified to be present in RNA, and they are essential in the natural growth and metabolism of cells. However, detection of these thiouridines generally is challenging, and few studies could offer the quantitative levels of uridine modifications in RNA, which limits the in-depth elucidation of their functions. Herein, we developed a chemical derivatization in combination with mass spectrometry analysis for the sensitive and simultaneous determination of uridine thiolation and hydroxylation modifications in eukaryotic RNA. The chemical derivatization strategy enables the addition of easily ionizable groups to the uridine thiolation and hydroxylation modifications, leading up to a 339-fold increase in detection sensitivities of these modifications by mass spectrometry analysis. The limits of detection of these uridine modifications can be down to 17 amol. With the established method, we discovered and confirmed that a new modification of 5-hydroxyuridine (ho5U) was widely present in small RNAs of mammalian cells, expanding the diversity of RNA modifications. The developed method shows superior capability in determining low-abundance RNA modifications and may promote identifying new modifications in RNA, which should be valuable in uncovering the unknown functions of RNA modifications.
RNA中动态和可逆修饰的发现扩展了其功能范围。现在,RNA修饰被视为参与多种生物过程的新调节因子。在这些修饰中,硫化是一种特殊的RNA修饰。已经识别出几种硫尿苷存在于RNA中,并且它们在细胞的自然生长和代谢中是必不可少的。然而,检测这些硫尿苷通常具有挑战性,且很少有研究能够提供RNA中尿苷修饰的定量水平,这限制了对其功能的深入阐明。在此,我们开发了一种化学衍生化结合质谱分析的方法,以敏感且同时地确定真核RNA中的尿苷硫化和羟基化修饰。该化学衍生化策略能够为尿苷硫化和羟基化修饰添加易于离子化的基团,从而使这些修饰的质谱分析检测灵敏度提高了339倍。这些尿苷修饰的检测限可低至17 amol。通过建立的方法,我们发现并确认一种新修饰5-羟基尿苷(ho5U)在哺乳动物细胞的小RNA中广泛存在,从而扩展了RNA修饰的多样性。该方法在确定低丰度RNA修饰方面表现出卓越的能力,并可能促进识别RNA中的新修饰,这对于揭示RNA修饰的未知功能将具有重要价值。