Function and Mechanism of METTL5-mediated 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification in hepatocellular carcinoma

Tumor recurrence is main pattern of treatment failure for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying disease recurrence remain poorly understood. Here, we showed that 18S rRNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A1832) modification and its methyltransferase complex METTL5/TRMT112 were upregulated in HCC and correlated with poor prognosis. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function assays demonstrated that METTL5/TRMT112 mediated 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification promotes HCC tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification selectively regulated the translation of mRNAs with long 5'UTR and short 3'UTR through affecting the assembly of 80S subunit at translation initiation and its dissociation at translation termination which was executed by weakening the interaction of ABCE1 with eRF1 and eRF3. Moreover, METTL5-mediated 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification regulated ß-oxidation of long-chain fatty acid through ACSL4 to promote HCC progression. Our work uncovered a novel layer of mRNA translation regulation mechanism at ribosome 80S subunit assembly and dissociation step mediated by 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification and revealed a new crosslink between RNA epigenetic modification and fatty acid metabolism in HCC. Overall design: Ribo-seq was used to study the differential translated genes in the METTL5 knockout and control cells.