Identification of potential readers for eukaryotic internal mRNA N7-methylguanosine (m7G) modification

The project aims to identify the RNA binding proteins that can specifically bind to mRNA internal modification N7-methylguanosine (m7G). N7-methylguanosine (m7G) methylation has been long identified as the essential cap modification for eukaryotic mRNA, but later has been identified internally in various types of RNAs, including tRNA, rRNA, miRNA, and mRNA. While the METTL1/WDR4 complex, responsible for tRNA m7G installation, has been suggested to be responsible for internal mRNA modification as well, little is known about the proteins that can identify and interact with m7G. To better understand its interaction with RNA binding proteins and further define its regulatory function in mRNA metabolism, we performed the experiment to pulldown proteins with different binding affinity on unmodified G and m7G and subject the enriched fractions to mass spectrometry.