Antibody-Free Fluorine-Assisted Metabolic Sequencing of RNA N4‑Acetylcytidine

N4-Acetylcytidine (ac4C) has been found to affect a variety of cellular and biological processes. For a mechanistic understanding of the roles of ac4C in biology and disease, we present an antibody-free, fluorine-assisted metabolic sequencing method to detect RNA ac4C, called “FAM-seq”. We successfully applied FAM-seq to profile ac4C landscapes in human 293T, HeLa, and MDA cell lines in parallel with the reported acRIP-seq method. By comparison with the classic ac4C antibody sequencing method, we found that FAM-seq is a convenient and reliable method for transcriptome-wide mapping of ac4C. Because this method holds promise for detecting nascent RNA ac4C modifications, we further investigated the role of ac4C in regulating chemotherapy drug resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia. The results indicated that drug development or combination therapy could be enhanced by appreciating the key role of ac4C modification in cancer therapy.