Stress promotes RNA G-quadruplex folding in human cells

Guanine (G)-rich nucleic acids can fold into G-quadruplex (G4) structures under permissive conditions. Although many RNAs contain sequences that fold into RNA G4s (rG4s) in vitro, their folding and functions in vivo are not well understood. Here, we showed that the folding of putative rG4s in human cells into rG4 structures was dynamically induced by stress. By using high-throughput dimethylsulfate probing, we identified hundreds of endogenous stress-induced rG4s. Our results demonstrated that stress-induced rG4s were enriched in mRNA 3′-untranslated regions and enhanced mRNA stability. Furthermore, stress-induced rG4 folding was readily reversible upon stress removal. In summary, our study revealed the dynamic regulation of rG4 folding in living human cells and suggests suggested that widespread rG4 motifs may have a global regulatory impact on mRNA stability and cellular stress response. G4-DMS-seq was performed to (1) identify endogenous G4 regions in the polyA+ transcriptome of U2OS cells and (2) measure their in vivo folding states under either physiological or starvation conditions.