Information in mRNA has largely been thought to be confined to its nucleotide sequence. However, the advent of mapping techniques to detect modified nucleotides has revealed that mRNA contains additional information in the form of chemical modifications. The most abundant modified nucleotide is N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A), a methyl modification of adenosine. Although early studies viewed m⁶A as a dynamic and tissue-specific modification, it is now clear that the mRNAs that contain m⁶A and the location of m⁶A in those transcripts are largely universal and are influenced by gene architecture, i.e., the size and location of exons and introns. m⁶A can affect nuclear processes such as splicing and epigenetic regulation, but the major effect of m⁶A on mRNAs is to promote degradation in the cytoplasm. m⁶A marks a functionally related cohort of mRNAs linked to certain biological processes, including cell differentiation and cell fate determination. m⁶A is also enriched in other cohorts of mRNAs and can therefore affect their respective cellular processes and pathways. Future work will focus on understanding how the m⁶A pathway is regulated to achieve control of m⁶A-containing mRNAs.

mRNA 中的信息在很大程度上被认为仅限于其核苷酸序列。然而，检测修饰核苷酸的作图技术的出现揭示了 mRNA 包含化学修饰形式的额外信息。最丰富的修饰核苷酸是N ⁶ -甲基腺苷 (m ⁶ A)，一种腺苷的甲基修饰。尽管早期研究将 m ^{6 A 视为动态和组织特异性修饰，但现在很清楚，包含 m 6} A的 mRNA和 m ⁶ A 在这些转录本中的位置在很大程度上是普遍的，并受基因结构的影响，即，外显子和内含子的大小和位置。米^{6A 可以影响剪接和表观遗传调控等核过程，但 m 6} A 对 mRNA的主要作用是促进细胞质中的降解。m ⁶ A 标记了一组与某些生物过程相关的功能相关的 mRNA，包括细胞分化和细胞命运决定。m ⁶ A 也富集在其他 mRNA 队列中，因此可以影响它们各自的细胞过程和通路。未来的工作将侧重于了解如何调节m ^{6 A 通路以实现对含 m 6} A 的 mRNA 的控制。