Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Nov 28;13(11):e1007064.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007064. eCollection 2017 Nov.

The evolution and adaptation of A-to-I RNA editing

Arielle L Yablonovitch  1   2 , Patricia Deng  1 , Dionna Jacobson  1 , Jin Billy Li  1
Affiliations
Review

The evolution and adaptation of A-to-I RNA editing

Arielle L Yablonovitch et al. PLoS Genet. .

Abstract

Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is an important post-transcriptional modification that affects the information encoded from DNA to RNA to protein. RNA editing can generate a multitude of transcript isoforms and can potentially be used to optimize protein function in response to varying conditions. In light of this and the fact that millions of editing sites have been identified in many different species, it is interesting to examine the extent to which these sites have evolved to be functionally important. In this review, we discuss results pertaining to the evolution of RNA editing, specifically in humans, cephalopods, and Drosophila. We focus on how comparative genomics approaches have aided in the identification of sites that are likely to be advantageous. The use of RNA editing as a mechanism to adapt to varying environmental conditions will also be reviewed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. ADAR evolution in mammals, fruit flies, and cephalopods.
Protein domains are represented by the large boxes and colored as follows: orange, deaminase domain; green, dsRNA binding domain; blue, Z-DNA binding domain. The domain structure shown for ADAR1 is that of octopus ADAR1 and that for ADAR2a is for squid. ADAR, adenosine deaminase acting on RNA; dsRNA, double-stranded RNA.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Comparing editing sites across species.
Diagram showing the number and proportion of recoding editing sites in humans [30], octopus [31], and Drosophila [30,45]. For octopus, only sites in annotated regions were considered.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Comparing genetic and environmental regulation of editing.
(A) In genetic regulation, a mutation (represented by the red star) may be near an editing site (purple dot) and alter the underlying RNA structure. This could affect ADAR’s ability to bind and edit the RNA. (B) In environmental regulation, or more specifically temperature regulation, an increase in temperature may destabilize the RNA structure containing the editing site or affect the expression of other trans-regulators of RNA editing. ADAR, adenosine deaminase acting on RNA.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Advantages of RNA editing for adaptation.
RNA editing may be advantageous for adaptation because it contributes to transcriptome diversity, generates plasticity in genomic regions of high conservation, and can be used to fine-tune protein function in response to the environment. A. gambiae, Anopheles gambiae; D. mel, Drosophila melanogaster; D. sim, Drosophila simulans.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bass BL, Weintraub H. An unwinding activity that covalently modifies its double-stranded RNA substrate. Cell. 1988. December 23;55(6):1089–98. - PubMed
    1. Huang H, Tan BZ, Shen Y, Tao J, Jiang F, Sung YY, et al. RNA Editing of the IQ Domain in Cav1.3 Channels Modulates Their Ca2+-Dependent Inactivation. Neuron. 2012. January 26;73(2):304–16. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.11.022 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rueter SM, Dawson TR, Emeson RB. Regulation of alternative splicing by RNA editing. Nature. 1999. May 6;399(6731):75–80. doi: 10.1038/19992 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kawahara Y, Zinshteyn B, Sethupathy P, Iizasa H, Hatzigeorgiou AG, Nishikura K. Redirection of Silencing Targets by Adenosine-to-Inosine Editing of miRNAs. Science. 2007. February 23;315(5815):1137–40. doi: 10.1126/science.1138050 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rieder LE, Savva YA, Reyna MA, Chang Y-J, Dorsky JS, Rezaei A, et al. Dynamic response of RNA editing to temperature in Drosophila. BMC Biol. 2015;13:1 doi: 10.1186/s12915-014-0111-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources