YTHDF2 promotes mitotic entry and is regulated by cell cycle mediators

PLoS Biol. 2020 Apr 8;18(4):e3000664. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000664. eCollection 2020 Apr.

Abstract

The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification regulates mRNA stability and translation. Here, we show that transcriptomic m6A modification can be dynamic and the m6A reader protein YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein 2 (YTHDF2) promotes mRNA decay during cell cycle. Depletion of YTHDF2 in HeLa cells leads to the delay of mitotic entry due to overaccumulation of negative regulators of cell cycle such as Wee1-like protein kinase (WEE1). We demonstrate that WEE1 transcripts contain m6A modification, which promotes their decay through YTHDF2. Moreover, we found that YTHDF2 protein stability is dependent on cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) activity. Thus, CDK1, YTHDF2, and WEE1 form a feedforward regulatory loop to promote mitotic entry. We further identified Cullin 1 (CUL1), Cullin 4A (CUL4A), damaged DNA-binding protein 1 (DDB1), and S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (SKP2) as components of E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes that mediate YTHDF2 proteolysis. Our study provides insights into how cell cycle mediators modulate transcriptomic m6A modification, which in turn regulates the cell cycle.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine / analogs & derivatives*
  • Adenosine / genetics
  • Adenosine / metabolism
  • CDC2 Protein Kinase / metabolism
  • Cell Cycle / physiology*
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / genetics
  • Cullin Proteins / metabolism
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Mitosis / physiology*
  • Protein Stability
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / genetics
  • RNA Stability
  • RNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • RNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism*
  • S-Phase Kinase-Associated Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • Cullin 1
  • Cullin Proteins
  • DDB1 protein, human
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • RNA-Binding Proteins
  • S-Phase Kinase-Associated Proteins
  • SKP2 protein, human
  • YTHDF2 protein, human
  • N-methyladenosine
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
  • WEE1 protein, human
  • CDC2 Protein Kinase
  • CDK1 protein, human
  • Adenosine

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (https://www.nih.gov) (GM113194 and HG008935 to C.H.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.