Nini Ma#, Peizhe Song#, Ziyang Liu, Yangjie Li, Zhihe Cai, Mengyue Ding, Xuan Ma, Qiutao Xu, Yaping Yue, Tangdi Luo, Dao-Xiu Zhou, Guifang Jia*, Yu Zhao*

Nature Plants volume 11, pages1165–1180 (2025), Published: 20 June 2025

Abstract

N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) reader proteins, which recognize m6A to regulate RNA metabolism, are important for plant adaptation to the changing environment. It remains unknown how the activities of plant m6A reader proteins are regulated in plant responses to stress. Here we show that the rice m6A reader protein EVOLUTIONARILY CONSERVED C-TERMINAL REGION 3 (OsECT3), required for rice tolerance to cold, is post-translationally modified by lysine acetylation, which reduces its m6A-binding activity. Under cold conditions, OsECT3 acetylation is reduced by cold-induced histone deacetylase HDA705 and low ACLA2-sourced acetyl-CoA levels, resulting in an increase in OsECT3 m6A-binding activity, the accumulation of cold-response-related mRNAs and improved tolerance of rice to cold stress. These results unravel a regulatory mechanism of an m6A reader protein to dynamically control m6A RNA levels under stress and suggest a link between lysine acetylation, metabolism and m6A pathways.

论文链接：http://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02013-w