Microarray analysis of gene expression regulation by FTO in melanoma cells

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation is the most abundant internal chemical modifications in eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) as well as long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). Recently, m6A RNA methylation research was revived by the discovery of the fat mass- and obesity-associated protein (FTO) as the first RNA demethylase, implicating that m6A RNA methylation is a reversible and dynamic modification and may have critical biological functions. Emerging evidence has shown that m6A modifications in mRNAs and lncRNAs play crucial roles in regulating RNA fate and function in biological processes in the past several years. As the first identified RNA demethylase that regulates the demethylation of target mRNAs, FTO has been reported to play an oncogenic role in leukemia and glioblastoma stem cells. To identify the target genes of FTO in melanoma cells, we used microarray analysis to determine the potential demethylation and gene targets across the whole transcriptome for FTO, and identified more than 100 genes. Microarray analysis of control and FTO-knockdown Mel624 melanoma cells in duplicate.