Eukaryotic rRNA Modification by Yeast 5-Methylcytosine-Methyltransferases and Human Proliferation-Associated Antigen p120.

International audience; Modified nucleotide 5-methylcytosine (m(5)C) is frequently present in various eukaryotic RNAs, including tRNAs, rRNAs and in other non-coding RNAs, as well as in mRNAs. RNA: m(5)C-methyltranferases (MTases) Nop2 from S. cerevisiae and human proliferation-associated nucleolar antigen p120 are both members of a protein family called Nop2/NSUN/NOL1. Protein p120 is well-known as a tumor marker which is over-expressed in various cancer tissues. Using a combination of RNA bisulfite sequencing and HPLC-MS/MS analysis, we demonstrated here that p120 displays an RNA:m(5)C-MTase activity, which restores m(5)C formation at position 2870 in domain V of 25S rRNA in a nop2 Delta …