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Review
. 2025 Aug 15;437(16):169099.
doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169099. Epub 2025 Mar 24.

The Secret Life of N1-methyladenosine: A Review on its Regulatory Functions

Nhi Yen Tran Nguyen  1 , Xisheng Liu  1 , Anindya Dutta  2 , Zhangli Su  3
Affiliations
Review

The Secret Life of N1-methyladenosine: A Review on its Regulatory Functions

Nhi Yen Tran Nguyen et al. J Mol Biol. .

Abstract

N1-methyladenosine (m1A) is a conserved modification on house-keeping RNAs, including tRNAs and rRNAs. With recent advancement on m1A detection and mapping, m1A is revealed to have a secret life with regulatory functions. This includes the regulation of its canonical substrate tRNAs, and expands into new territories such as tRNA fragments, mRNAs and repeat RNAs. The dynamic regulation of m1A has been shown in different biological contexts, including stress response, diet, T cell activation and aging. Interestingly, m1A can also be installed by non-enzymatic mechanisms. However, technical challenges remain in m1A site mapping; as a result, controversies have been observed across different labs or different methods. In this review we will summarize the recent development of m1A detection, its dynamic regulation, and its biological functions on diverse RNA substrates.

Keywords: N(1)-methyladenosine; RNA modification; demethylase; methyltransferase; tRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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