The bladder cancer m6A landscape is defined by methylation dilution and 3'-UTR hypermethylation

Abstract

N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification of eukaryotic mRNAs and regulates target transcripts throughout the mRNA life cycle. Although changes in m6A have been reported in human cancers, technical limitations have hindered a comprehensive understanding of the cancer-associated m6A landscape. Here, we used GLORI-sequencing to establish the first transcriptome-wide, single-nucleotide resolution maps of m6A in cancer. Differentially methylated transcripts were enriched in oncogenic pathways relevant to UCB. We discovered two key m6A signatures in UCB: a global loss of methylation and a local hypermethylation at 3'-UTRs. Integration of RNA-sequencing data revealed that the global loss resulted from dilution of methylation marks due to increased expression of unmethylated transcripts and decreased expression of highly methylated transcripts. In contrast, local 3'-UTR hypermethylation was associated with the overexpression of VIRMA, a component of the m6A writer complex, which was linked to UCB progression. Our study is the first to describe the m6A epitranscriptomic landscape of cancer at single-base resolution and provides first insights into the processes that generate its characteristic signatures.