TET1-Mediated Oxidation of 5-Formylcytosine (5fC) to 5-Carboxycytosine (5caC) in RNA

Abstract

It was recently revealed that 5-methylcytosine (5mC) in mRNA, similar to its behavior in DNA, can be oxidized to produce 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and 5-formylcytosine (5fC), implying the potential regulatory roles of this post-transcriptional RNA modification. In this study, we demonstrate the in vitro oxidation of 5fC to 5-carboxycytidine (5caC) by the catalytic domain of mammalian ten-eleven translocation enzyme (TET1) in different RNA contexts. We observed that this oxidation process has very low sequence dependence and can take place in single-stranded, double-stranded, or hairpin forms of RNA sequences, although the overall conversion yields are low.

Keywords: 5-carboxycytidine; 5-formylcytidine; 5-methylcytidine; RNA; TET enzyme.