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Studies on biological functions of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification in mRNA have drawn significant attention in recent years. Here we describe the construction and characterization of a CRISPR–Cas13b-based tool for targeted demethylation of specific mRNA. A fusion protein, named dm6ACRISPR, was created by linking a catalytically inactive Type VI-B Cas13 enzyme from Prevotella sp. P5–125 (dPspCas13b) to m6A demethylase AlkB homolog 5 (ALKBH5). dm6ACRISPR specifically demethylates m6A of targeted mRNA such as cytochrome b5 form A (CYB5A) to increase its mRNA stability. It can also demethylate β-catenin-encoding CTNNB1 mRNA that contains multiple m6A sites to trigger its translation. In addition, the dm6ACRISPR system incurs efficient demethylation of targeted epitranscriptome transcripts with limited off-target effects. Targeted demethylation of transcripts coding for oncoproteins such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and MYC can suppress proliferation of cancer cells. Together, we provide a programmable and in vivo manipulation tool to study mRNA modification of specific genes and their related biological functions.

5-Methylcytosine (5mC) in DNA CpG islands is an important epigenetic biomarker for mammalian gene regulation. It is oxidized to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) by the ten-eleven translocation (TET) family enzymes, which are α-ketoglutarate (α-KG)/Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenases. In this work, we demonstrate that the epigenetic marker 5mC is modified to 5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC in vitro by another class of α-KG/Fe(II)-dependent proteins—the DNA repair enzymes in the AlkB family, which include ALKBH2, ALKBH3 in huamn and AlkB in Escherichia coli. Theoretical calculations indicate that these enzymes may bind 5mC in the syn-conformation, placing the methyl group comparable to 3-methylcytosine, the prototypic substrate of AlkB. This is the first demonstration of the AlkB proteins to oxidize a methyl group attached to carbon, instead of nitrogen, on a DNA base. These observations suggest a broader role in epigenetics for these DNA repair proteins.

AlkB is a DNA/RNA repair enzyme that removes base alkylations such as N1-methyladenosine (m1A) or N3-methylcytosine (m3C) from DNA and RNA. The AlkB enzyme has been used as a critical tool to facilitate tRNA sequencing and identification of mRNA modifications. As a tool, AlkB mutants with better reactivity and new functionalities are highly desired; however, previous identification of such AlkB mutants was based on the classical approach of targeted mutagenesis. Here, we introduce a high-throughput screening method to evaluate libraries of AlkB variants for demethylation activity on RNA and DNA substrates. This method is based on a fluorogenic RNA aptamer with an internal modified RNA/DNA residue which can block reverse transcription or introduce mutations leading to loss of fluorescence inherent in the cDNA product. Demethylation by an AlkB variant eliminates the blockage or mutation thereby restores the fluorescence signals. We applied our screening method to sites D135 and R210 in the Escherichia coli AlkB protein and identified a variant with improved activity beyond a previously known hyperactive mutant toward N1-methylguanosine (m1G) in RNA. We also applied our method to O6-methylguanosine (O6mG) modified DNA substrates and identified candidate AlkB variants with demethylating activity. Our study provides a high-throughput screening method for in vitro evolution of any demethylase enzyme.

N 6-methyldeoxyadenosine (6mA) is a well-characterized DNA modification in prokaryotes but reports on its presence and function in mammals have been controversial. To address this issue, we established the capacity of 6mA-Crosslinking-Exonuclease-sequencing (6mACE-seq) to detect genome-wide 6mA at single-nucleotide-resolution, demonstrating this by accurately mapping 6mA in synthesized DNA and bacterial genomes. Using 6mACE-seq, we generated a human-genome-wide 6mA map that accurately reproduced known 6mA enrichment at active retrotransposons and revealed mitochondrial chromosome-wide 6mA clusters asymmetrically enriched on the heavy-strand. We identified a novel putative 6mA-binding protein in single-stranded DNA-binding protein 1 (SSBP1), a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication factor known to coat the heavy-strand, linking 6mA with the regulation of mtDNA replication. Finally, we characterized AlkB homologue 1 (ALKBH1) as a mitochondrial protein with 6mA demethylase activity and showed that its loss decreases mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Our results show that 6mA clusters play a previously unappreciated role in regulating human mitochondrial function, despite 6mA being an uncommon DNA modification in the human genome.

Etheno DNA adducts are a prevalent type of DNA damage caused by vinyl chloride (VC) exposure and oxidative stress. Etheno adducts are mutagenic and may contribute to the initiation of several pathologies; thus, elucidating the pathways by which they induce cellular transformation is critical. Although N 2,3-ethenoguanine (N 2,3-εG) is the most abundant etheno adduct, its biological consequences have not been well characterized in cells due to its labile glycosidic bond. Here, a stabilized 2′-fluoro-2′-deoxyribose analog of N 2,3-εG was used to quantify directly its genotoxicity and mutagenicity. A multiplex method involving next-generation sequencing enabled a large-scale in vivo analysis, in which both N 2,3-εG and its isomer 1,N 2-ethenoguanine (1,N 2-εG) were evaluated in various repair and replication backgrounds. We found that N 2,3-εG potently induces G to A transitions, the same mutation previously observed in VC-associated tumors. By contrast, 1,N 2-εG induces various substitutions and frameshifts. We also found that N 2,3-εG is the only etheno lesion that cannot be repaired by AlkB, which partially explains its persistence. Both εG lesions are strong replication blocks and DinB, a translesion polymerase, facilitates the mutagenic bypass of both lesions. Collectively, our results indicate that N 2,3-εG is a biologically important lesion and may have a functional role in VC-induced or inflammation-driven carcinogenesis.

The Escherichia coli AlkB protein is a 2-oxoglutarate/Fe(II)-dependent demethylase that repairs alkylated single stranded and double stranded DNA. Immunoaffinity chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry identified RecA, a key factor in homologous recombination, as an AlkB-associated protein. The interaction between AlkB and RecA was validated by yeast two-hybrid assay; size-exclusion chromatography and standard pull down experiment and was shown to be direct and mediated by the N-terminal domain of RecA. RecA binding results AlkB-RecA heterodimer formation and RecA-AlkB repairs alkylated DNA with higher efficiency than AlkB alone.

The Escherichia coli AlkB protein (EcAlkB) is a DNA repair enzyme which reverses methylation damage such as 1-methyladenine (1-meA) and 3-methylcytosine (3-meC). The mammalian AlkB homologues ALKBH2 and ALKBH3 display EcAlkB-like repair activity in vitro , but their substrate specificities are different, and ALKBH2 is the main DNA repair enzyme for 1-meA in vivo . The genome of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana encodes several AlkB homologues, including the yet uncharacterized protein AT2G22260, which displays sequence similarity to both ALKBH2 and ALKBH3. We have here characterized protein AT2G22260, by us denoted ALKBH2, as both our functional studies and bioinformatics analysis suggest it to be an orthologue of mammalian ALKBH2. The Arabidopsis ALKBH2 protein displayed in vitro repair activities towards methyl and etheno adducts in DNA, and was able to complement corresponding repair deficiencies of the E. coli alkB mutant. Interestingly, alkbh2 knock-out plants were sensitive to the methylating agent methylmethanesulphonate (MMS), and seedlings from these plants developed abnormally when grown in the presence of MMS. The present study establishes ALKBH2 as an important enzyme for protecting Arabidopsis against methylation damage in DNA, and suggests its homologues in other plants to have a similar function. The Author(s) 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Human AlkB homologues ABH2 and ABH3 repair 1-methyladenine and 3-methylcytosine in DNA/RNA by oxidative demethylation. The enzymes have similar overall folds and active sites, but are functionally divergent. ABH2 efficiently demethylates both single- and double-stranded (ds) DNA, whereas ABH3 has a strong preference for single-stranded DNA and RNA. We find that divergent F1 β-hairpins in proximity of the active sites of ABH2 and ABH3 are central for substrate specificities. Swapping F1 hairpins between the enzymes resulted in hybrid proteins resembling the donor proteins. Surprisingly, mutation of the intercalating residue F102 had little effect on activity, while the double mutant V101A/F102A was catalytically impaired. These residues form part of an important hydrophobic network only present in ABH2. In this functionally important network, F124 stacks with the flipped out base while L157 apparently functions as a buffer stop to position the lesion in the catalytic pocket for repair. F1 in ABH3 contains charged and polar residues preventing use of dsDNA substrate. Thus, E123 in ABH3 corresponds to F102 in ABH2 and the E123F-variant gained capacity to repair dsDNA with no loss in single strand repair capacity. In conclusion, divergent sequences outside of the active site determine substrate specificities of ABH2 and ABH3.

Bacterial and mammalian AlkB proteins are iron(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases that reverse methylation damage, such as 1-methyladenine and 3-methylcytosine, in RNA and DNA. An AlkB-domain is encoded by the genome of numerous single-stranded, plant-infecting RNA viruses, the majority of which belong to the Flexiviridae family. Our phylogenetic analysis of AlkB sequences suggests that a single plant virus might have acquired AlkB relatively recently, followed by horizontal dissemination among other viruses via recombination. Here, we describe the first functional characterization of AlkB proteins from three plant viruses. The viral AlkB proteins efficiently reactivated methylated bacteriophage genomes when expressed in Escherichia coli, and also displayed robust, iron(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent demethylase activity in vitro. Viral AlkB proteins preferred RNA over DNA substrates, and thus represent the first AlkBs with such substrate specificity. Our results suggest a role for viral AlkBs in maintaining the integrity of the viral RNA genome through repair of deleterious methylation damage, and support the notion that AlkB-mediated RNA repair is biologically relevant.

Methylating agents introduce cytotoxic 1-methyladenine (1-meA) and 3-methylcytosine (3-meC) residues into nucleic acids, and it was recently demonstrated that the Escherichia coli AlkB protein and two human homologues, hABH2 and hABH3, can remove these lesions from DNA by oxidative demethylation. Moreover, AlkB and hABH3 were also found to remove 1-meA and 3-meC from RNA, suggesting that cellular RNA repair can occur. We have here studied the preference of AlkB, hABH2 and hABH3 for single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) or double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), and show that AlkB and hABH3 prefer ssDNA, while hABH2 prefers dsDNA. This was consistently observed with three different oligonucleotide substrates, implying that the specificity for single-stranded versus double-stranded DNA is sequence independent. The dsDNA preference of hABH2 was observed only in the presence of magnesium. The activity of the enzymes on single-stranded RNA (ssRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and DNA/RNA hybrids was also investigated, and the results generally confirm the notion that while AlkB and hABH3 tend to prefer single-stranded nucleic acids, hABH2 is more active on double-stranded substrates. These results may contribute to identifying the main substrates of bacterial and human AlkB proteins in vivo.

The iron(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate (2OG)-dependent dioxygenase AlkB from Escherichia coli (EcAlkB) repairs alkylation damage in DNA by direct reversal. EcAlkB substrates include methylated bases, such as 1-methyladenine (m(1)A) and 3-methylcytosine (m(3)C), as well as certain bulkier lesions, for example the exocyclic adduct 1,N(6)-ethenoadenine (epsilonA). EcAlkB is the only bacterial AlkB protein characterized to date, and we here present an extensive bioinformatics and functional analysis of bacterial AlkB proteins. Based on sequence phylogeny, we show that these proteins can be subdivided into four groups: denoted 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B; each characterized by the presence of specific conserved amino acid residues in the putative nucleotide-recognizing domain. A scattered distribution of AlkB proteins from the four different groups across the bacterial kingdom indicates a substantial degree of horizontal transfer of AlkB genes. DNA repair activity was associated with all tested recombinant AlkB proteins. Notably, both a group 2B protein from Xanthomonas campestris and a group 2A protein from Rhizobium etli repaired etheno adducts, but had negligible activity on methylated bases. Our data indicate that the majority, if not all, of the bacterial AlkB proteins are DNA repair enzymes, and that some of these proteins do not primarily target methylated bases.

The Escherichia coli AlkB protein is involved in protecting cells against mutation and cell death induced specifically by SN2-type alkylating agents such as methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). A human cDNA encoding a polypeptide homologous to E.coli AlkB was discovered by searching a database of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) derived from high throughput cDNA sequencing. The full-length human AlkB homolog (hABH) cDNA clone contains a 924 bp open reading frame encoding a 34 kDa protein which is 52% similar and 23% identical to E.coli AlkB. The hABH gene, which maps to chromosome 14q24, was ubiquitously expressed in 16 human tissues examined. When hABH was expressed in E.coli alkB mutant cells partial rescue of the cells from MMS-induced cell death occurred. Under the conditions used expression of hABH in skin fibroblasts was not regulated by treatment with MMS. Our findings show that the AlkB protein is structurally and functionally conserved from bacteria to human, but its regulation may have diverged during evolution.

The Escherichia coli AlkB protein catalyzes the direct reversal of alkylation damage to DNA; primarily 1-methyladenine (1mA) and 3-methylcytosine (3mC) lesions created by endogenous or environmental alkylating agents. AlkB is a member of the non-heme iron (II) alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily, which removes the alkyl group through oxidation eliminating a methyl group as formaldehyde. We have developed a fluorescence-based assay for the dealkylation activity of this family of enzymes. It uses formaldehyde dehydrogenase to convert formaldehyde to formic acid and monitors the creation of an NADH analog using fluorescence. This assay is a great improvement over the existing assays for DNA demethylation in that it is continuous, rapid and does not require radioactively labeled material. It may also be used to study other demethylation reactions including demethylation of histones. We used it to determine the kinetic constants for AlkB and found them to be somewhat different than previously reported values. The results show that AlkB demethylates 1mA and 3mC with comparable efficiencies and has only a modest preference for a single-stranded DNA substrate over its double-stranded DNA counterpart.