A-to-I RNA editing affects lncRNAs expression after heat shock

Adenosine to inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is a highly conserved regulatory process carried out by adenosine deaminases (ADARs) on dsRNAs. Although a significant fraction of the transcriptome is edited, the function of most editing sites is unknown. Previous studies indicated changes in A-to-I RNA editing frequencies following exposure to several stress types. However, the overall effect of stress on the expression of ADAR targets is not fully understood. Here we performed high-throughput RNA sequencing of wildtype and ADAR mutant C. elegans worms after heat shock, to analyze the effect of heat shock stress on the expression pattern of genes. We found that ADAR regulation following heat shock does not involve directly heat shock related genes. Our analysis also revealed that, lncRNAs and pseudogenes, which have a tendency for secondary RNA structures, are enriched among upregulated genes upon heat shock in ADAR mutant worms, while they are downregulated in ADAR mutant worms under permissive conditions. Therefore, temperature increases may destabilize dsRNA structures and protect them from RNAi degradation, despite the lack of ADAR function. These findings shade a new light on the dynamics of gene expression under heat shock in relation to ADAR function. Wildtype (N2) and ADAR mutant worms (BB21 and BB4) were subjected to heat shock treatment. In parallel, the same strains were suspended under standard conditions, as a control. Total RNA was extracted and poly(A) enriched libraries were generated from each sample. High-throughput mRNA-sequencing was carried out. DESeq2 package (1) in R was used to identify differentially expressed genes under heat shock.