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Short Title: Evolution of the RNA m6A modification 1
Corresponding author: [email protected]; [email protected] 2
Chuang Ma 3
State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Center of Bioinformatics, College of 4
Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, Yangling 712100, China 5
Tel: +86-29-87091109 6
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Evolution of the RNA N6-methyladenosine methylome mediated by 8
genomic duplication 9
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Author names and affiliations: 11
Zhenyan Miao1,2, Ting Zhang1, Yuhong Qi1, Jie Song1, Zhaoxue Han1,2, Chuang Ma1,2,* 12
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1State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Center of Bioinformatics, College of 14
Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, Yangling 712100, China 15
2Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics Improvement of Maize in Arid Area of Northwest 16
Region, Ministry of Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, Yangling 712100, China 17
*Corresponding author: [email protected]; [email protected] 18
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One-sentence summary 20
RNA N6-methyladenosine-modified genes exhibit biased subgenome fractionation, and their 21
co-evolutionary relationship with transposable elements is mediated by genomic duplication in 22
maize (Zea mays). 23
24
Author contributions 25
C.M. and Z.M. conceived the project; Z.H. prepared plant materials; T.Z., Z.M., and J.S. 26
performed the bioinformatics analysis; Y.Q. performed the experimental validation; Z.M., T.Z., 27
Plant Physiology Preview. Published on August 13, 2019, as DOI:10.1104/pp.19.00323
Copyright 2019 by the American Society of Plant Biologists
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and C.M. wrote the article with help from all authors. 28
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Funding information 30
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31570371), the 31
Natural Science Foundation Research Project of Shaanxi Province of China (2019JQ-096), the 32
Youth 1000-Talent Program of China, the Hundred Talents Program of Shaanxi Province of China, 33
and the Fund of Northwest A&F University (Z111021603 and Z111021403). 34
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Abstract 36
RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is the most abundant form of RNA epigenetic 37
modification in eukaryotes. Given that m6A evolution is associated with the selective constraints 38
of nucleotide sequences in mammalian genomes, we hypothesize that m6A evolution can be linked, 39
at least in part, to genomic duplication events in complex polyploid plant genomes. To test this 40
hypothesis, we presented the maize (Zea mays) m6A modification landscape in a 41
transcriptome-wide manner, and identified 11,968 m6A peaks carried by 5,893 and 3,811 genes 42
from two subgenomes (maize1 and maize2, respectively). Each of these subgenomes covered over 43
2,200 duplicate genes. Within these duplicate genes, those carrying m6A peaks exhibited 44
significant differences in retention rate. This biased subgenome fractionation of m6A-methylated 45
genes is associated with multiple sequence features and is influenced by asymmetric evolutionary 46
rates. We also characterized the co-evolutionary patterns of m6A-methylated genes and 47
transposable elements, which can be mediated by whole genome duplication and tandem 48
duplication. We revealed the evolutionary conservation and divergence of duplicated m6A 49
functional factors, and the potential role of m6A modification in maize responses to drought stress. 50
This study highlights complex interplays between m6A modification and gene duplication, 51
providing a reference for understanding the mechanisms underlying m6A evolution mediated by 52
genome duplication events. 53
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Introduction 55
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an internal, prevalent RNA modification, and has been identified in 56
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the RNA of mammals (Adams and Cory, 1975), insects (Levis and Penman, 1978), yeast (Clancy 57
et al., 2002), and plants, such as Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; Zhong et al., 2008) and maize 58
(Zea mays; Nichols, 1979). The m6A modification is formed by m6A methyltransferase ‘writer’ 59
proteins (e.g., methyltransferase-like 3 [METTL3], methyltransferase-like 14 [METTL14], and 60
Wilms tumor1-associating protein [WTAP] in mammalian cells) (Bokar et al., 1997; Liu et al., 61
2014; Ping et al., 2014), recognized by ‘reader’ proteins (e.g., YT512-B Homology [YTH] domain 62
proteins) (Xu et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2015) and removed by ‘eraser’ proteins (m6A demethylases; 63
e.g., fat mass and obesity-associated protein [FTO] and alkylated DNA repair protein AlkB 64
homolog 5 [ALKBH5]) (Jia et al., 2011; Zheng et al., 2013), thus forming an epitranscriptomic 65
system of RNA methylations directly analogous to the well-studied reversible DNA and histone 66
modifications (Wang and He, 2014). Loss of function of core components of m6A modification 67
system in mammals have demonstrated that m6A modification affects multiple aspects of RNA 68
metabolism, including stability (Wang et al., 2014b), translation efficiency (Shi et al., 2017), 69
nuclear export (Roundtree et al., 2017), and alternative splicing (Zhao et al., 2014). In Arabidopsis, 70
the disruption of N6-adenosine-methyltransferase MT-A70-like (MTA, METTL3 homolog), 71
methyltransferase MT-A70 family protein (MTB, METTL14 homolog), and FKBP12 interacting 72
protein 37 (FIP37, WTAP homolog) leads to early embryonic lethality (Vespa et al., 2004; Zhong 73
et al., 2008; Ruzicka et al., 2017), and the depletion of ALKBH10B (At4g02940, ALKBH5 74
homolog) effects Arabidopsis floral translation (Duan et al., 2017). Additionally, two YTH-domain 75
proteins (EVOLUTIONARILY CONSERVED C-TERMINAL REGION2 [ECT2] and ECT3) 76
function as m6A readers and control developmental timing and morphogenesis, and trichome 77
morphology (Arribas-Hernandez et al., 2018; Scutenaire et al., 2018; Wei et al., 2018). These 78
pioneering biochemical and genetic researches shed the light on the functional roles of RNA m6A 79
modification that constitutes an important regulatory mechanism in RNA biology (Roundtree et al., 80
2017; Yang et al., 2018). 81
Recently, with the development of m6A sequencing (m6A-seq) technologies, an increasing number 82
of m6A methylome comparison studies have begun to unravel the evolution of this important 83
post-transcriptional modification (Dominissini et al., 2012; Dominissini et al., 2013). The 84
evolutionary conservation of m6A modifications was detected within two yeast species 85
(Saccharomyces mikatae and S. cerevisiae) (Schwartz et al., 2013), across two accessions 86
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of Arabidopsis (Can-0 and Hen-16) (Luo et al., 2014), and between human, chimpanzee, and 87
rhesus (Ma et al., 2017). The transcriptome-wide comparison on m6A modifications from human, 88
chimpanzee, and rhesus revealed that m6A evolution is associated with the selective constraints of 89
DNA sequences, and occurs in parallel with expression evolution of m6A-methylated genes (Ma et 90
al., 2017). Yet virtually nothing is known about the evolution of m6A modification after genome 91
duplications in plant evolution. 92
In plants, genome duplications (GDs), including whole genome duplications (WGDs), segmental 93
duplications, tandem duplications (TDs), and translocated duplications, generate a source of 94
specific genomic context (i.e., duplicated regions) as a dominant force of plant genome evolution 95
(Freeling, 2009). Following GD events, duplicated genes were subjected to different levels of 96
purifying selection, a proportion of which were lost in a process known as fractionation. There are 97
also many duplicate genes retained in the genome as paralog pairs, in which the individual genes 98
may be subfunctionalized (partitioning and sharing the original gene function) and/or 99
neofunctionalized (gaining novel functions) (Panchy et al., 2016). Both the bias in fractionation 100
and the functional divergence of duplicated genes have been reported to be associated with 101
differences in DNA methylation, rates of movement of transposable elements (TEs), gene 102
expression, and post-transcriptional regulation (Wang et al., 2014a; Wang et al., 2015; Panchy et 103
al., 2016; Cheng et al., 2018). Therefore, GDs provide a source of specific genomic context that 104
may have profound influences on transcriptional regulation and post-transcriptional regulation. 105
This raises the question whether, and if so to what degree, the evolution of m6A modification is 106
mediated by GD events in complex polyploid plant genomes. 107
To investigate this question, we performed deep m6A-seq on the leaf tissue of maize and explored 108
the patterns of m6A evolution in maize. Maize underwent a recent WGD event, after its divergence 109
from the lineage that gave rise to sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) ~ 5–12 million years ago 110
(Swigonova et al., 2004). Since that time, the two subgenomes in maize experienced a variety of 111
changes (e.g., chromosomal rearrangements, and gene conversion) (Schnable et al., 2011), and 112
were combined into a diploid genome (Wei et al., 2007; Schnable et al., 2011). Because of this 113
unusual evolutionary history, together with the availability of high-quality of the maize B73 114
reference genome (Jiao et al., 2017) and the sorghum reference genome (Paterson et al., 2009; 115
McCormick et al., 2018), we selected maize as a model crop system to study the evolutionary 116
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implications of m6A modification in the context of GD events. Using the transcriptome-wide map 117
of m6A generated from our study, we made an effort to address some topics of conceptual 118
importance to understanding the evolutionary characteristics of m6A in maize. For example, do 119
GD events contribute to the evolutionary novelty of m6A modification? How is the evolution of 120
m6A modification associated with the expression divergence of duplicate genes? How, or whether, 121
m6A modification and TEs experience some co-evolutionary process following WGD in maize? 122
Our answers to these questions are provided by examining the coordination patterns of RNA m6A 123
modification with gene duplication, evolutionary divergence, gene expression and TE 124
accumulation. 125
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Results 128
Transcriptome-wide mapping of m6A in maize 129
To obtain the transcriptome-wide m6A map in maize, a series of m6A-immunoprecipitation (IP) 130
and the matched input (non-IP control) libraries was constructed and sequenced (Supplemental 131
Table S1). This series included leaf tissue of maize B73 and Han21 seedlings under both 132
well-watered (WW) and drought-stressed (DS) conditions, with three biological replicates each. 133
Raw sequencing reads were processed to discard adaptor sequences and low-quality bases using 134
the Trimmomatic v0.36 tool (Bolger et al., 2014). The resulting reads from maize B73 and Han21 135
samples were respectively aligned to the maize B73 reference genome (B73_RefGen_v4) and 136
Han21 pseudogenome using Tophat v2.1.1 (Kim et al., 2013). To build Han21 pseudogenome, 137
single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between B73 and Han21 were identified by aligning 138
Han21 RNA-seq data to maize B73 reference genome (B73_RefSeq_v4) using STAR (Dobin et al., 139
2013), following by SNP calling using GATK UnifiedGenotyper (McKenna et al., 2010). 94,761 140
SNPs within transcribed regions were used to replace the corresponding nucleotides in the maize 141
B73 reference genome to generate a pseudo-reference genome for Han21. Read distribution 142
analysis showed that the reads from m6A-IP samples are highly accumulated around the stop 143
codon and within 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTRs) in all experimental conditions (Supplemental 144
Figure S1). We detected 8,224 to 11,134 m6A peaks in each individual biological replicate 145
(Supplemental Figure S2). For each experiment condition (one inbred line under one 146
environmental condition), highly confident peaks were identified referring the previous study 147
(Yoon et al., 2017). Briefly, by intersecting peak regions in a pairwise fashion among all three 148
replicates, regions that overlap in at least two of three replicates were designated as high 149
confidence m6A peak regions. Strong correlations were observed for the abundance of confident 150
peaks between biological replicates (Supplemental Figure S3). Confident m6A peaks from 151
different experimental conditions were further merged into a unique set of m6A peaks. As a result, 152
a total of 11,968 unique m6A peaks with high confidence were finally detected from 11,219 maize 153
genes (Supplemental Table S2), accounting for an average of ~1.07 m6A peaks within 154
transcription units from each gene. The m6A peaks in maize are abundant in 3′-UTRs (74.6% of 155
m6A peaks), near stop codons (20.8%), and coding sequences (3.2%) (Figure 1A). Enrichment 156
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analysis showed that the stop codon was the most enriched segment, representing ~ eight-fold 157
enrichment, followed by the 3′-UTR (~ four-fold enrichment) (Figure 1B). Similar distribution 158
patterns of m6A peaks were also observed in the separate analysis of m6A-seq data from B73 and 159
Han21 (Supplemental Figure S4). At the genome level, 11,219 m6A-methylated genes (i.e., genes 160
whose transcripts carrying m6A peaks; in abbreviation, as m6A genes) were unevenly distributed 161
across each chromosome (Figure 1D). 162
We observed that 90.6% of 11,968 m6A peaks contain the canonical motif RRACH (where R 163
represents A/G, A is m6A, and H represents A/C/U) in maize (Figure 1C; Supplemental Table S3). 164
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As shown in Supplemental Table S3, this proportion is comparable to those (80.6%, 92.3% and 165
81.2%) estimated using m6A peaks generated from three recent Arabidopsis m6A methylome 166
studies (Luo et al., 2014; Shen et al., 2016; Anderson et al., 2018). These 11,968 m6A peaks were 167
further scanned for enriched motifs using MEME suite (http://meme-suite.org/index.html; Bailey 168
et al., 2009). As expected, the RRACH motif is significantly enriched within maize m6A peaks 169
(Supplemental Figure S5). We also noted an interesting motif URUAY (where Y represents C/U) 170
(Figure 1C), which can also be detected from m6A peaks from each replicate sample 171
(Supplemental Figure S6). URUAY motif has recently been regarded as a plant-specific consensus 172
motif recognized by m6A reader protein ECT2 (Wei et al., 2018). Indeed, as shown in 173
Supplemental Figure S5, this URUAY motif is also enriched within m6A peaks generated from 174
three recent Arabidopsis m6A methylome studies (Luo et al., 2014; Shen et al., 2016; Anderson et 175
al., 2018). By using another commonly-used motif enrichment analysis software HOMER suite 176
(v4.10; http://homer.ucsd.edu/homer) (Heinz et al., 2010), enriched URUAY motif can also be 177
detected from maize and Arabidopsis m6A data used in our study (Supplemental Figure S5). Dot 178
blot assay was also performed to validate the specificity of m6A antibody for URUAY motif 179
(Supplemental Figure S7). 180
The transcriptome-wide m6A map in maize is provided for the benefit of the readers in the future 181
analysis. An overview of the transcriptome-wide m6A map supported by JBrowse (Buels et al., 182
2016) and downloadable Browser Extensible Data (BED) format files may be accessed in the 183
Maize Epigenetics Data Browser (MEDB), which is publicly available at 184
http://bioinfo.nwafu.edu.cn/MaizeBrowse/index.html. 185
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m6A genes exhibit distinct sequence features from non-m6A genes 187
To identify sequence features that may associate with m6A modification, we first tested the 188
Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between the frequency of m6A genes and different sequence 189
features (gene length, exon length, exon number, guanine-cytosine [GC] content, intron length and 190
gene distance) along the maize genome in a sliding window of 100 adjacent genes (Supplemental 191
Table S4). The statistical significance of PCC was assessed using 10,000 permutation tests, in each 192
of which 11,219 ‘m6A genes’ were randomly selected from the maize B73 genome annotation and 193
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a new PCC value was calculated for generating a background distribution. The corresponding 194
P-value was calculated as P=(1+N)/10,000; here N is the number of PCC in the background 195
distribution, which exceeds the PCC for the original data. P-value < 0.0001 denotes none of 196
10,000 permutation tests exceeding the PCC for the original data. We observed that the frequency 197
of m6A genes was slightly positively correlated with exon length (PCC = 0.06; P-value = 0.0955) 198
(Supplemental Figure S8), but significantly positively correlated with gene length (PCC = 0.33; 199
P-value < 0.0001) and exon number (PCC = 0.57; P-value < 0.0001) (Figure 2, A and B; 200
Supplemental Figure S8). In addition, the frequency of m6A genes was significantly negatively 201
correlated with GC content (PCC = -0.16; P-value = 0.0002) and gene distance (PCC = -0.36; 202
P-value < 0.0001) (Figure 2, C and D; Supplemental Figure S8). 203
Complementary to the correlation analysis using contiguous windows, we further performed 204
statistical analysis using sequence features from individual genes. Maize genes were split into 205
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three groups according to the corresponding number of m6A peaks from our study: low-m6A genes 206
(10,559 genes carrying only one m6A peak), high-m6A genes (660 genes carrying at least two m6A 207
peaks), and non-m6A genes (28,105 genes carrying no m6A peak) (Supplemental Table S2). 208
Compared with non-m6A genes, m6A genes (both low-m6A genes and high-m6A genes) had 209
significantly more exons (Figure 2E), lower GC content (Figure 2F) and longer introns (Figure 210
2G). The mean gene length is in the order of high-m6A genes (11,796 bp) > low-m6A genes (7,271 211
bp) > non-m6A genes (2,849 bp) (Figure 2H). These results may indicate that longer genes tend to 212
have a higher probability of containing the m6A peaks. 213
The above statistical analysis using contiguous windows and individual genes was also performed 214
on 10,604 and 10,085 m6A genes determined from m6A-seq datasets of B73 and Han21, separately. 215
We found that there is no substantial difference between the statistical results for the two inbred 216
lines (Supplemental Figure S9; Supplemental Figure S10). This result is as expected, as a 217
substantial number of m6A genes (9,470) were overlapped in both maize inbred lines 218
(Supplemental Figure S11A). We observed that significant differences exist between 1,134 219
B73-specific and 615 Han21-specific m6A genes in the distribution of GC content and average 220
intron length (Supplemental Figure S11B). Next, we examined whether there are significant 221
differences in nucleotide sequence variation between m6A genes from these two inbred lines 222
(Han21 and B73). Comparison analysis revealed that the SNP density in m6A genes is 223
significantly lower than that in non-m6A genes (Supplemental Figure S12). 224
Overall, these results above suggest that m6A modification in maize is correlated with multiple 225
sequence features, including gene length, exon number, intron length, GC content, and SNP 226
density. 227
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Biased fractionation of m6A genes exists between two subgenomes in 229
maize 230
The maize genome underwent its most recent WGD shortly after divergence from sorghum 231
(Schnable et al., 2011). After the WGD event, one copy of many duplicated gene pairs in maize 232
was lost (fractionated), leaving the other one as a singleton. Because of the biased gene 233
fractionation, the loss of duplicated genes is uneven between two maize subgenomes (maize1 and 234
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maize2), so that the maize1 subgenome retains more genes than maize2 subgenome (Brohammer 235
et al., 2018). In human and yeast, the evolutionary consequences of gene duplication are 236
associated with DNA methylation (Keller and Yi, 2014), gene expression (Gout et al., 2010), as 237
well as post-translational modification (Amoutzias et al., 2010). Considering that m6A 238
modification is correlated with multiple sequence features (Figure 2; Supplemental Figure S11) 239
and has a role in regulating gene expression (Yue et al., 2015; Roignant and Soller, 2017; 240
Roundtree et al., 2017), we raised the question of whether m6A modification might also be linked 241
to duplicated gene retention. 242
We first examined the duplication status of m6A genes retained after the most recent WGD event. 243
Genes in maize1 and maize2 were identified by performing syntenic analysis between the maize 244
B73 reference genome and the sorghum reference genome (Brohammer et al., 2018). Among 245
11,219 m6A genes, 5,893 and 3,811 were annotated as maize1 and maize2 genes, respectively 246
(Supplemental Table S2). The singleton-duplicate ratio of m6A genes in maize1 (1:0.66; 3,551 vs. 247
2,342) is significantly higher than that of m6A genes in maize2 (1:1.43; 1,566 vs. 2,245) (χ2 test; 248
P-value < 0.001), which is consistent with the trend in total subgenome genes (Figure 3A). The 249
significant difference in singleton-duplicate ratio between maize1 and maize2 was also apparent 250
when m6A genes in tandem duplication were not involved (Supplemental Figure S13). Notably, 251
the frequency of m6A genes in maize2 singletons is significantly higher than that in maize1 252
singletons (Figure 3B). These divergences of m6A genes between two subgenomes are most likely 253
the evolutionary consequence of biased subgenome fractionation. The biased fractionation of m6A 254
singletons between two subgenomes may associate with multiple sequence features. As shown in 255
Figure 3, C and D, singletons carrying m6A peaks (m6A singletons) in maize1 have significantly 256
more exons and longer nucleotides than those in maize2 (Student’s t-test; P-value < 0.05), but 257
these features were not significantly different between total maize1 singletons and maize2 258
singletons. These suggest that the biased fractionation of m6A genes may be relative to gene 259
length. 260
We then compared the evolutionary rate (ω) of m6A genes from maize1 and maize2 subgenomes. 261
The evolutionary rates, ratio of non-synonymous substitution (Ka)/synonymous sites (Ks), of 262
genes in maize were estimated using interspecific comparisons with putatively orthologous 263
sequences between maize and sorghum. The ω values of m6A genes were significantly higher than 264
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those of non-m6A genes; and Ks values of m6A genes were considerably lower than those of 265
non-m6A genes (Student’s t test; P-value < 0.001) (Supplemental Figure S14). This is indicative of 266
higher evolutionary rate and less evolutionary time of m6A genes. We also observed that the 267
evolutionary rate of m6A singletons in maize1 was significantly lower than that of m6A singletons 268
in maize2, but the evolutionary rate of non-m6A singletons was not significantly different between 269
maize1 and maize2 (Table 1). These indicated that m6A singletons in maize1 have experienced a 270
higher intensity of purifying selection than those in maize2. This asymmetric purifying selection 271
may have an influence on biased fractionation of m6A singletons. In contrast, m6A duplicates in 272
maize1 and maize2 evolved under similar levels of purifying selection, but the evolutionary rate of 273
non-m6A duplicates in maize1 was significantly lower than that of non-m6A duplicates in maize2 274
(Table 1). These indicated that m6A modification could associate with the divergence of 275
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evolutionary rate between duplicate genes in two subgenomes. 276
Further analysis of m6A duplicates showed that the evolutionary time (Ks) was significantly 277
different from duplicate gene pairs with different m6A patterns: non-m6A (NM) pattern (neither of 278
two partners carrying m6A peaks), diverged-m6A (DM) pattern (one partner had m6A peaks while 279
the other did not), and identical-m6A (IM) pattern (both of two partners carrying m6A peaks). 280
Duplicate genes with NM pattern had the significantly highest level of Ks values, followed by 281
duplicate genes with DM and IM patterns (Student’s t-test; P-value < 0.001) (Supplemental Figure 282
S15). Gene transposition could cause the separation of syntenic duplicates into two singletons. 283
Protein sequence comparison between the maize and sorghum genome identified 198 and 108 284
pairs of transposed singletons in maize1 and maize2, respectively (Supplemental Table S2). We 285
observed that transposed gene pairs had a significantly higher proportion of divergence of m6A 286
status than syntenic duplicate gene pairs without transposition (χ2 test; P-value < 0.001) 287
(Supplemental Figure S16). These observations indicate that m6A modification divergence in 288
young duplicate pairs was smaller than that in older duplicate pairs; and gene transposition could 289
enhance the extent of m6A divergence between duplicate pairs. 290
291
Co-evolutionary consequences of m6A methylome and TEs influence 292
duplicates retention and expression divergence 293
We then explored whether there was an association between m6A modification and gene 294
expression in maize. Similar with those for m6A-seq, a series of RNA-seq libraries were 295
constructed using leaf tissue of maize B73 and Han21 seedlings under both WW and DS 296
conditions, with three biological replicates each (Supplemental Table S1). For each of these 297
RNA-seq libraries, the expression abundance of maize genes was estimated in terms of FPKM 298
(fragments per kilobase per million). We observed that the expression abundance of m6A genes 299
was significantly higher than that of non-m6A genes (Figure 4A); and the singleton-duplicate ratio 300
of m6A genes (1:0.71; 6,329 vs. 4,520) is significantly lower than that of non-m6A genes (1:0.34; 301
18,523 vs. 6,234) (χ2 test; P-value < 0.001), reflecting an overall higher retention rate for 302
duplicated genes methylated by m6A (Figure 4B). The association between m6A modification and 303
gene expression was also revealed by the differential expression abundance between m6A 304
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duplicates and singletons in maize (Supplemental Figure S17). 305
With the m6A-seq and RNA-seq data at hand, we were interested in whether m6A modification 306
divergence associated with expression divergence (ED) for duplicate genes. For a duplicate gene 307
pair (G1, G2), the ED was calculated using the formula: ED = (E1-E2)/(E1+E2), where E1 and E2 308
denote the mean expression level of G1 and G2, respectively. The ED of m6A genes with DM 309
pattern was significantly higher than that of genes with IM pattern (Figure 4C). For genes with 310
DM pattern, the methylated partners exhibited a higher level of gene expression than 311
non-methylated partners (Figure 4D). These findings suggested that m6A modification was more 312
likely to occur on actively transcribed genes and could be associated with the retention rate and 313
expression divergence of duplicate gene pairs. 314
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Previous studies have reported that the frequency of TEs, which is associated with local genomic 315
stability, also affects the expression of their neighboring genes (Sahebi et al., 2018). This 316
prompted us to investigate whether there is an evolutionary interplay between m6A and TEs. In 317
our data we observed that m6A genes are closer to TEs than non-m6A genes (Figure 5A); and the 318
frequency of TE-related genes (gene loci overlap with TE loci) carrying m6A peaks (61.1%; 319
6,850/11,219) was significantly higher than that of non-m6A genes (57.3%; 16,118/28,090) (χ2 test; 320
P-value < 0.01) (Figure 5B). Moreover, by comparing the evolutionary rates of m6A genes with 321
those of non-m6A genes, significantly higher ω values were observed from m6A genes (Figure 5C); 322
and ω values of TE-related m6A genes were significantly higher than those of non-TE-related m6A 323
genes (Figure 5D). These evidences suggest that, after WGD in maize, genes with m6A 324
modification had undergone relaxed selection, which is accompanied by the gathering of TEs 325
close to genes, such tendencies would be indicative of co-evolution between m6A genes and TEs. 326
The co-evolution between m6A genes and TEs was also exemplified by evolutionary analysis of 327
tandemly duplicated (TD) genes methylated by m6A. We totally obtained 4,448 TD genes from 328
1,758 TD clusters identified by Kono and colleagues (Kono et al., 2018). We observed that both 329
Ka values and Ks values of m6A and non-m6A TD genes are significantly higher than those of 330
non-TD genes. However, ω values for m6A TD genes are significantly lower than those of m6A 331
non-TD genes; and there is no significant difference between ω values for non-m6A TD genes and 332
non-m6A non-TD genes (Supplemental Table S5). These suggest that although both m6A and 333
non-m6A genes involved in TD events have had a higher substitution rate than those not involved, 334
m6A genes have been under stronger selective constraint during TD events than non-m6A genes. 335
After that, we found the frequency of m6A in TD genes is significantly lower than that in non-TD 336
genes (Figure 5E), and the ratio of DM pattern to IM pattern in TD clusters (2.04:1; 228 vs. 112) 337
was significantly higher than that observed in WGD duplicates (0.56:1; 990 vs. 1,765) (Figure 5F). 338
Remarkably, m6A TD genes were significantly less distant from TEs than non-TD genes (Figure 339
5G); and 65.9% (323/490) m6A TD genes were TE-related genes. This ratio was significantly 340
lower in non-TD genes (60.8%; 6,527/10,729) (Figure 5H). These results suggest that the 341
evolutionary scenario of m6A TD genes is accompanied by a preferential accumulation of TEs 342
during the process of TD events. 343
344
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16
Evolution of m6A functional factors and their influences on 345
hypomethylation of transcripts of drought-stress response genes 346
Phylogenetic analysis identified the functional counterparts of the m6A methyltransferases (MTA, 347
MTB, FIP37, putative ortholog of human KIAA1429 [VIRILIZER], and the E3 ubiquitin ligase 348
HAKAI), demethylases (ALKBH10B), and binding proteins (ECT2, ECT3 and ECT4) in maize 349
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17 (Supplemental Figure S18). According to the phylogenetic tree and genomic coordinates, five 350
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homologous pairs formed by the WGD event were identified: ZmFIP37a/ZmFIP37b, 351
ZmHAKAIa/ZmHAKAIb, ZmECTa/ZmeECTb, ZmECTd/ZmECTe, and 352
ZmALKBH10a/ZmALKBH10b (Figure 6A). For ZmHAKAIa/ZmHAKAIb and ZmECTd/ZmECTe, 353
their corresponding partners showed very similar evolutionary rates, as reflected by Ka, Ks, and ω 354
(Figure 6B). In contrast, for the other three duplicate pairs, their corresponding partners exhibited 355
notably distinct evolutionary rates, which appeared to exhibit different strengths of purifying 356
selection. These results indicate that evolutionary conservation and divergence of m6A functional 357
factors may be medicated by WGD. 358
We performed RNA-seq analysis to quantify the expression abundance of m6A functional factors 359
in the leaf sample of two maize inbred lines responses to drought stress. In the drought-sensitive 360
inbred line B73, two ALKBH10 homologs and two ECT2/4 homolog were significantly 361
up-regulated by drought stress (Figure 6C). These expression patterns were also verified by qPCR 362
assay (Supplemental Figure S19). Meanwhile, the m6A abundance in drought-stressed samples 363
was significantly lower than that in well-watered samples, indicating global m6A hypomethylation 364
induced by drought stress (Supplemental Figure S20, A and B). For each maize line, differential 365
methylated peaks (DMPs) were identified by comparing the abundance of m6A peaks between DS 366
and WW conditions (Supplemental Table S6). The drought-tolerant Han21 line (2,998) has more 367
DMPs than the drought-sensitive B73 line (386). However, the proportion of hypomethylated 368
DMPs in Han21 (92.0%; 2,758/2,998) is comparable to that in B73 (87.8%; 339/386) 369
(Supplemental Figure S20C). These results may reflect the phenomenon that levels of m6A 370
modification are significantly decreased during drought stress in both inbred lines. Considering 371
the expression patterns of m6A methyltransferase and demethylase genes, the decrease in m6A 372
methylation during drought stress is most likely contributed by the induced expression of m6A 373
demethylase genes. 374
Most of DMPs were located in 3′-UTR and stop codon regions in both B73 and Han21 375
(Supplemental Figure S21A). A recent article reviewed that the genic locations of m6A peaks play 376
distinct roles in mediating the functional output of m6A modification (Shen et al., 2019). Therefore, 377
we performed Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of genes containing DMPs to explore 378
functional characteristics of DMPs in the context of genic location. In B73, the GO terms “protein 379
phosphorylation” and “regulation of apoptotic process” were specifically enriched in genes with 380
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19
DMPs within 3′-UTR, while the GO terms “histone exchange” and “cytoplasmic translation” were 381
specifically enriched in genes within DMPs near stop codon (Supplemental Figure S21B). In 382
Han21, the GO terms “regulation of transcription” and “protein transport” were specifically 383
enriched in genes with DMPs within 3′-UTR, while the GO terms “photoreactive repair” and 384
“siderophore biosynthetic process” were specifically enriched in genes within DMPs near DMPs 385
(Supplemental Figure S21B). These results revealed that genes containing DMPs in specific genic 386
location play roles in distinct biological processes in B73 and Han21. 387
Han21 line was significantly more tolerant of drought stress than B73, which manifests as 388
dramatic phenotypic differences observed, including increased plant height, alterations in relative 389
water content and water loss rate, and robustness in root development (Supplemental Figure S22). 390
To understand the potential role of m6A hypomethylation in these phenotypic differences, we 391
performed GO analysis of genes containing hypomethylated m6A peaks in B73 and Han21, 392
respectively (Supplemental Figure S23). In B73, genes involved in cuticle development, negative 393
regulation of apoptotic signaling pathway, and response to abscisic acid are highly enriched. In 394
Han21, genes were significantly enriched in response to abiotic stress processes, such as cellular 395
response to oxidative stress, response to osmotic stress, acetyl-CoA metabolic process, and 396
ethylene mediated signaling pathway; as well as several developmental pathways, such as cell 397
morphogenesis and development, embryo development ending in seed dormancy, glucose and 398
starch metabolic process, and supramolecular fiber organization. These gene functions showed 399
clear correspondence with the observed phenotypic responses of these two maize inbred lines. 400
Moreover, the differences in drought tolerance between B73 and Han21 can also be explored at 401
the level of individual genes covering DMPs. VACUOLAR INVERTASE 2 (VI2) is a positive 402
regulator of root elongation in Arabidopsis (Sergeeva et al., 2006). The Han21 line showed more 403
than a two-fold reduction in methylation levels of m6A peaks in VI2 during drought stress 404
(Supplemental Figure S24). m6A peaks in Actin-7 (ACT7), a member of the actin gene family 405
involved in root growth, cell division, and root architecture in Arabidopsis (Kandasamy et al., 406
2009), is also less methylated in drought-stressed samples of maize B73 line (Supplemental Figure 407
S24). Furthermore, increased accumulation of epicuticular waxes is known to limit water loss and 408
increase water-deficit tolerance (Aharoni et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005; Kosma et al., 2009). The 409
striking disparity in relative water content and water loss rate is accompanied by marked 410
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20
differences in the methylation levels of m6A peaks in genes associated with wax deposition 411
between B73 and Han21. For example, ECERIFERUM4 (CER4) and CER10, two genes encode 412
the alcohol-forming fatty acyl-coenzyme A reductase, are involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis 413
in Arabidopsis (Rowland et al., 2006). Methylation levels of m6A peaks in putative maize 414
orthologs of these two genes are significantly inhibited by drought stress in Han21 and B73, 415
respectively (Supplemental Figure S24). Furthermore, methylation level of m6A peaks in wax 416
ester synthase/acyl-coenzyme A: diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1), a gene encodes 417
diacylglycerol acyltransferase that is required for stem wax ester biosynthesis in Arabidopsis (Li et 418
al., 2008), is also significantly repressed by drought stress in Han21 (Supplemental Figure S24). 419
Then, we performed m6A-IP-qPCR assay to further confirmed the m6A methylation levels of these 420
DMPs. As shown in Supplemental Figure S25, the results of m6A-IP-qPCR assay is consistent 421
with those of m6A-seq. Together, these observations demonstrate that the concerted 422
hypomethylation of candidate transcripts encoding proteins may associate with wax accumulation 423
during response to drought stress. 424
425
426
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21
Discussion 427
Over the past several years, several studies have demonstrated the important roles of epigenetic 428
modifications in evolutionary history of eukaryotic genomes (Zemach et al., 2010; Chang and 429
Liao, 2012; Wang et al., 2014a; Patten, 2016). However, few transcriptome-wide studies have 430
attempted to investigate the evolutionary patterns of RNA m6A modification in the context of GD 431
events. In the present study, we used maize as a model system to study the evolution of m6A 432
methylome following GD events. Our analysis suggested that m6A modification alteration 433
following GD events appears to be a significant source of evolutionary novelty within plants. 434
435
The transcriptome-wide map of m6A in maize 436
Our study presents the transcriptome-wide map of RNA m6A modifications in the leaf tissue of 437
maize seedlings. This resource provides us an opportunity to globally characterize m6A in large, 438
complex plant genome. In our maize m6A-seq data, URUAY motif has a lower enrichment 439
E-value than the canonical RRACH motif. Given that the URUAY motif is identified as a 440
plant-specific consensus motif recognized by m6A reader protein ECT2 and the UGUA motif can 441
be methylated by endogenous Arabidopsis m6A writer proteins (Wei et al., 2018), these 442
phenomena indicated that those m6A writer proteins with methylation activity for the URUAY 443
motif may be conserved between Arabidopsis and maize. However, our motif enrichment analysis 444
using previously published Arabidopsis m6A-seq data showed that the enrichment E-values of 445
URUAY motif are generally higher than those of RRACH motif (Supplemental Figure S5). These 446
differences between maize and Arabidopsis likely represent the different m6A site biases and 447
unique biological meanings of m6A methylation between two species, or may result from the 448
distinct technical biases in m6A-seq library preparation among these studies. Further in-depth 449
structural and functional analysis of m6A writer and reader proteins may help to clarify these 450
biases. 451
Additionally, we found that the frequency of m6A genes is positively correlated with gene length, 452
exon number and intron length. We infer that the longer genes may have a higher probability of 453
containing m6A modification. Previous study has shown that gene length is increasing with 454
evolutionary time (Grishkevich and Yanai, 2014); and longer genes are more likely to be retained 455
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22
as duplicates (McGrath et al., 2014; Guo, 2017). Further considering the higher retention rate of 456
m6A duplicates compared with non-m6A genes (Figure 4B), we suspect that gene length may be an 457
important genic property that linked the evolutionary relationship between m6A modification and 458
gene duplication in maize. 459
To benefit the readers in the future analysis, we developed a web browser named MEDB to host 460
the transcriptome-wide m6A map and to support navigation of the map and its interactive 461
visualization, integration, comparison and analysis. Taking advantages of the JBrowse system 462
(Buels et al., 2016), MEDB also allows users to transfer their private m6A methylome data to the 463
browser as custom tracks for easy cross-study comparison. For ensuring the data security, MEDB 464
does not require the users to upload their own files to the server. Instead, it can access local files or 465
a uniform resource locator (URL) specifying the location of a remote file. The cross-study 466
comparison can be performed through a degree of in-browser data analysis by combining data in 467
tracks using arithmetic and set operations, for example finding the union, intersection or exclusive 468
of two tracks. Notably, combination tracks can be further used as input to other combination tracks, 469
allowing users to build up arbitrarily complex analysis tracks. 470
471
Correlation between m6A methylation and biased subgenome 472
fractionation 473
In maize, a proportion of duplicated genes were lost because of different levels of purifying 474
selection on two subgenomes, a process known as biased fractionation. Genes in the 475
over-fractionated subgenome (maize1) are distinct with respect to overall fitness, in contrast to 476
genes in the under-fractionated subgenome (maize2) (Schnable et al., 2011). Our analysis revealed 477
that the singleton-duplicate ratio of m6A in maize1 was significantly higher than that in maize2 478
(Figure 3A), suggesting that biased subgenome fractionation also occurred in m6A genes. Further 479
investigation revealed that maize1 singletons exhibited significantly lower m6A frequency than 480
maize2 singletons (Figure 3B), and ω values were significantly lower in m6A singletons of maize1 481
than those of maize2 (Table 1), indicating significantly higher levels of purifying selection on the 482
fractionated m6A genes in maize1 than those in maize2. These results are complementary 483
evidences for the hypothesis that maize1 underwent stronger purifying selection that resulted in a 484
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23
higher frequency of fractionation (Schnable et al., 2012; Pophaly and Tellier, 2015). 485
A bias of gene expression dominance toward the less fractionated subgenome has been previously 486
observed in maize (Schnable et al., 2011). Indeed, we showed that m6A genes had higher 487
expression levels than non-m6A genes; and m6A modification divergence was correlated with gene 488
expression divergence between duplicate partners (Figure 4; Supplemental Figure S17). 489
Considering that gene expression levels impose a strong constraint on gene duplications and 490
subgenome fractionation, these observations indicate that m6A modification divergence of 491
duplicate genes influences gene expression abundance and ultimately, the divergence of 492
subgenome dominance in maize. 493
494
Complex interplays among m6A modification, TE accumulation, and 495
tandem duplication 496
The disruptive effects of TEs have been extensively documented, as they can integrate into the 497
regulatory or coding region of host genes or induce ectopic/nonallelic recombination, which is 498
often associated with lower levels of gene stability (Jangam et al., 2017). In our study, m6A genes 499
were found to be less distant from TEs than non-m6A genes, and the frequency of TEs in m6A 500
genes was higher than that in non-m6A genes (Figure 5, A and B). m6A genes involved in TD 501
events also showed less distance from TEs than those not involved, and the frequency of 502
TE-related genes was much higher in TD genes than in non-TD genes (Figure 5, G and H). These 503
suggests that genes flanked by TEs were more likely to be methylated by m6A; and then this 504
coordination of m6A and TEs experienced a more relaxed selection (Figure 5D). Together with 505
former observations that m6A modification can enhance stability of target genes (Figure 4), we 506
propose preferential accumulation of TEs near m6A genes, as a co-evolutionary outcome of m6A 507
modification and TEs, involves a compromise between optimal levels of gene stability and 508
prevention of the damage done by active TEs. 509
In addition, we found that gene members in tandem duplicated arrays showed higher rates of 510
divergence in m6A modification than those in syntenic duplication pairs (Figure 5F), and m6A 511
genes involved in TD events evolved more quickly and underwent stronger purifying selection 512
than those not involved (Supplemental Table S5). This is hypothesized to be a consequence of the 513
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24
effects of gene balance; the theory being that genes encoding proteins that interact with large 514
numbers of other proteins are more sensitive to changes in stoichiometry than those that do not 515
(Birchler and Veitia, 2010). The stoichiometry of members of multi-subunit complexes can affect 516
the amount of functional complete product, which in turn, affects patterns of gene expression and 517
ultimately, the phenotype and evolutionary fitness (Birchler and Veitia, 2012). The observation 518
that TD genes have higher loss rates of m6A modification relative to non-TD genes (Figure 5E) is 519
a complementary evidence for the hypothesis that these genes may be undergoing 520
subfunctionalization, representing an evolutionary outcome of m6A modification medicated by TD 521
events. 522
523
Potential roles of m6A modification in maize response to drought 524
stress 525
Differential gene expression has been proven to be responsible for drought responses in plants 526
(Zhu, 2016; Miao et al., 2017). Differential levels of m6A modification under drought stress has 527
also been observed in both B73 and Han21 (Supplemental Figure S20), suggesting that m6A 528
modification may be another important contributor for drought responses. Here, we discuss the 529
evolutionary consequences of five duplicated gene pairs encoding m6A functional factors that may 530
contribute to responses to drought stress (Figure 6, B and C). The two members of each of two 531
duplicated gene pairs (ZmHAKAIa/ZmHAKAIb, and ZmECTd/ZmECTe) exhibited similar 532
intensities of purifying selection, suggesting that they have been exposed to similar selective 533
constraints. This explained why these members all showed mild expression. In contrast, the 534
evolutionary rates of two members of ZmFIP37 pairs varied, but their expression values were 535
smooth. It is possible that these two members have differential effects on other phenotypes or 536
during other developmental stages, regardless of whether their specific roles in drought responses 537
have diverged. Notably, variations in the evolutionary rates and levels of expression between 538
members of the ZmALKBH10 pair were observed, in line with recent reports in Arabidopsis (Duan 539
et al., 2017), and which could be the outcomes of neofunctionalization or subfunctionalization as 540
the adaptive consequences of gene duplication. The up-regulated expression of genes encoding 541
demethylases (ZmALKBH10) appears to be the primary force driving m6A hypomethylation 542
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25
under drought stress, which indicates that m6A hypomethylation may play a positive role in 543
drought response. 544
545
Future perspectives: Exploring the dynamics of RNA m6A 546
methylation in different plant species with spatial, temporal, and 547
environmental dimensions 548
In this study, we highlighted the importance of generating transcriptome-wide m6A map in plant 549
species, and uncovered the evolutionary patterns of m6A modifications associated with genomic 550
duplication using m6A-seq data from the leaf tissue of maize seedlings. As the most abundant 551
internal mRNA modification, m6A has gained increasing interests in the last few years to 552
understand its dynamic roles of post-transcriptional regulation mechanism underlying key plant 553
developmental processes, including embryo development (Ruzicka et al., 2017), shoot stem cell 554
fate (Shen et al., 2016), floral transition (Duan et al., 2017), and trichome morphogenesis (Wei et 555
al., 2018) in Arabidopsis m6A studies. We expect that, in the future, the m6A modification 556
dynamics will be explored using transcriptome-wide m6A maps profiled from different 557
developmental stages and tissues of maize (as well as other important plant species) under diverse 558
environmental conditions. Comparison of m6A modifications within and across species will be 559
performed to further elucidate the evolutionary mode of post-transcriptional regulation in plants. 560
561
Materials and Methods 562
Plant growth and sample preparation 563
Seeds from the B73 and Han21 inbred lines of maize (Zea mays) were germinated, and seedlings 564
were transferred to a growth chamber with controlled environmental conditions (28°C day/26°C 565
night, 16 hr light/8 hr dark). The relative water content of soil was maintained at 80% of the soil 566
moisture capacity for well-watered seedlings and at 40% of soil moisture capacity for 567
drought-stressed seedlings. When seedlings developed three fully expanded leaves, leaf samples 568
(three biological replicates for each experimental condition) were harvested, immediately frozen 569
in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80°C for RNA isolation and sequencing. 570
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26
571
RNA isolation and PolyA+ mRNA selection 572
For each leaf sample, total RNA was extracted using the RNAiso Plus (Code No. 9109, TaKaRa) 573
according to the manufacturer’s instructions. PolyA+ mRNA selection was performed using oligo 574
(dT)25 magnetic beads (Code No. S1419S, NEB) following the manufacturer’s protocol. 575
576
High-throughput m6A-seq and RNA-seq 577
mRNA was randomly fragmented into ~200-nucleotide-long fragments by RNA Fragmentation 578
Reagents (Ambion). Fragmented RNA was incubated for 2 hr at 4°C with 0.5 mg/mL anti-m6A 579
polyclonal antibody (Synaptic Systems Cat. No. 202003) in IP buffer (150 mM NaCl, 0.1% [v/v] 580
octylphenoxypolyethoxyethanol [Igepal CA-630], and 10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.4]) supplemented 581
with RNasin Plus RNase inhibitor (Promega). The mixture was then immunoprecipitated by 582
incubation with protein-A beads at 4°C for an additional 2 hr. After extensive washing, bound 583
RNA was eluted from the beads with 0.5 mg/mL N6-methyladenosine in IP buffer, and precipitated 584
by ethanol. TruSeq standard mRNA Sample Prep Kit (Illumina) was used to construct the libraries 585
from immunoprecipitated RNA and input RNA according to a published protocol (Dominissini et 586
al., 2013). Sequencing was performed on an Illumina HiSeq platform (Illumina Inc., San Diego, 587
CA, USA) and 50 base-pair (bp) single-end reads were generated. Library for RNA-seq was 588
generated using TruSeq Stranded mRNA Sample Prep Kit (Illumina). The resulting libraries were 589
sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq platform (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) to produce 2× 590
122-bp paired-end reads. 591
592
Analysis of sequencing data 593
Raw reads from RNA-seq and m6A-seq were trimmed to remove adaptor sequences and 594
low-quality bases using the Trimmomatic v0.36 tool (Bolger et al., 2014). The quality of trimmed 595
RNA-seq and m6A-seq reads were examined using the FastQC program 596
(https://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/projects/fastqc). 597
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between B73 and Han21 were identified following the 598
GATK Best Practices workflow (Van der Auwera et al., 2013). In brief, Han21 RNA-seq reads 599
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27
were firstly mapped to B73 reference genome using STAR with parameters set as 600
“--outFilterMultimapNmax 1 --outSAMstrandField intronMotif --twopassMode Basic” (Dobin et 601
al., 2013). Then, AddOrReplaceReadGroups and MarkDuplicates functions in Picard suite 602
(v2.20.0; https://broadinstitute.github.io/picard) were used to add read groups and remove 603
duplicates, respectively. Subsequently, the SplitNCigarReads function in GATK suite (McKenna 604
et al., 2010) was used to split reads into exon segments and hard-clip sequences overhanging into 605
the intronic regions. SNPs were detected using HaplotypeCaller tool in GATK suite with 606
parameters set as “-allowPotentiallyMisencodedQuals -dontUseSoftClippedBases 607
-stand_call_conf 20 -ERC GVCF -nct 20”. The CombineGVCFs and GenotypeGVCFs functions 608
in GATK suite were used to merge gvcf files and to generate vcf files. The results were further 609
filtered using VariantFiltration tool in GATK suite with recommended parameters (-window 35 610
-cluster 3 -filterName FS -filter "FS > 60.0" -filterName QD -filter "QD < 2.0"). Finally, samtools 611
v1.9 (Li et al., 2009) was used to select highly confidence SNPs with the following requirements: 612
(1) non-reference alleles need to be consistent, (2) SNPs supported with ≥ 10 reads, and (3) SNPs 613
supported with ≥ 2 samples. 614
Han21 pseudogenome was built based on SNPs identified from our RNA-seq data. The trimmed 615
B73 and Han21 RNA-seq reads were respectively aligned to the maize B73 reference genome 616
(B73_RefGen_v4) and Han21 pseudogenome using Tophat v2.1.1 (Kim et al., 2013) with 617
maximum intron length set to 10kb, with default settings for other parameters, respectively. 618
Unique mapping reads were provided as input to Cufflinks v2.2.1 (Trapnell et al., 2013) for 619
normalization and estimation of gene expression level in terms of fragments per kilobase of 620
transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM = Counts of mapped fragments × 109/ [Length of 621
transcript × Total count of the mapped fragments]). Differential analysis was conducted using the 622
Cuffdiff program in Cufflinks. In this study, maize B73 reference genome sequences and 623
annotation were downloaded from Ensembl Plants (Release 41; https://plants.ensembl.org; Kersey 624
et al., 2018). 625
The trimmed B73 and Han21 m6A-seq reads were respectively aligned to the maize B73 reference 626
genome and Han21 pseudogenome using the STAR v2.5.3a (Dobin et al., 2013) with parameters 627
“--alignIntronMin 20 --alignIntronMax 10000 --outFilterMultimapNmax 1 628
--outFilterMismatchNmax 1”, respectively. Peak calling was performed using a "SlidingWindow" 629
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28
method slightly modified from previous analysis (Luo et al., 2014), and implemented with the R 630
package PEA (Zhai et al., 2018). To call m6A peaks, the reference genome was scanned using a 631
25-bp sliding window. A fisher exact test was used to identify windows enriched for m6A, by 632
comparing normalized read counts of each window for IP and input samples. Benjamini-Hochberg 633
was implemented to adjust the P-value to false discovery rate (FDR) for multiple testing using the 634
R function “p.adjust”. Significant windows were identified if fold change of normalized read 635
count was more than two and FDR value was less than 0.05. Adjacent significant windows were 636
merged together to form peak regions. Peaks with length less than 100-nt in length were excluded 637
from the analysis. The called peaks within lowly expressed genes (FPKM < 1) were discarded. For 638
each experiment condition, peaks that overlap in at least two of three replicates were merged as 639
confidence m6A peaks using slice function (lower=2, rangesOnly=TRUE) in IRanges package 640
(Lawrence et al., 2013). Confident m6A peaks from four experimental conditions (B73_WW, 641
B73_DS, Han21_WW and Han21_DS) were further merged into a unique set of m6A peaks using 642
slice function (lower=1, rangesOnly=TRUE) in IRanges package. The m6A peaks with significantly 643
differential m6A modification levels between drought-stressed and well-watered conditions were 644
determined using the QNB software (Liu et al., 2017), with the criteria set as enrichment fold 645
change ≥ 2 or ≤ 0.5, and FDR ≤ 0.05. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis was performed using 646
topGO (Alexa et al., 2006). 647
648
Identification of enriched motifs within m6A peaks 649
Two well-known motif analysis suites, MEME (Bailey et al., 2009) and HOMER (Heinz et al., 650
2010), were used to perform the motif enrichment analysis. The DREME (Discriminative Regular 651
Expression Motif Elicitation) tool in the MEME suite (http://meme-suite.org/tools/dreme) was 652
used to discover relatively short (up to 8 bp), ungapped motifs that are enriched within a set of 653
target sequences (m6A peak sequences) relative to a set of control sequences (shuffled m6A peak 654
sequences). The set of target sequences (target set) is composed with m6A peak sequences 655
extracted from reference genome (maize: B73_RefGen_v4; Arabidopsis: TAIR10) using the 656
fastaFromBed function in bedtools v2.28 (Quinlan and Hall, 2010). The set of control sequences 657
(control set) is generated by randomly shuffling each of m6A peak sequences while preserving the 658
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29
nucleotide frequencies. This shuffling process is performed by using the ‘fasta-shuffle-letters’ 659
utility (k=1) provided by the MEME suite. These two sets of sequences were input to DREME for 660
discovering motifs with the following parameters: minimum length of the motif: 5; maximum 661
length of the motif: 7; E-value threshold: 1E-5. 662
For a specified motif (e.g., RRACH or URUAY), AME tool in the MEME suite 663
(http://meme-suite.org/tools/ame) and findMotifs.pl script in the HOMER tool 664
(http://homer.ucsd.edu/homer) were respectively used to calculate the significance level of relative 665
enrichment of this motif within target sequences relative to control sequences. 666
667
Synonymous (Ks) and nonsynonymous (Ka) substitutions in 668
homologous maize genes 669
The maize subgenome data (genes in maize1 and maize2) in our study were obtained from 670
(Brohammer et al., 2018), which were identified via performing syntenic analysis between the 671
maize genome and the sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) genome. Briefly, the SynMap pipeline (Lyons 672
et al., 2008) was run for aligning maize B73 reference genome (B73_RefGen_v4) against the 673
sorghum reference genome (v3.1; http://phytozome.jgi.doe.gov) to identify maize genes in 674
syntenic blocks relative to the ancestral state. Then, the subgenome identity of each maize 675
chromosome was determined using a previously described method (Schnable et al., 2011). The 676
maize tandem duplicate genes in our study were obtained from (Kono et al., 2018). The coding 677
sequences of homologous gene pairs were aligned using the MAFFT v7.271 software (Katoh and 678
Standley, 2013). On the basis of sequence alignments, the synonymous (Ks) and nonsynonymous 679
(Ka) substitutions and the resulting Ka/Ks values were calculated using the Model Averaging (MA) 680
method in the KaKs_calculator v2.0 (Wang et al., 2010). 681
682
Identification of gene transposition 683
The protein sequences of singleton genes in maize containing syntenic orthologs in sorghum were 684
searched against protein sequences of the singletons without syntenic orthologs in sorghum, using 685
Protein BLAST (BLASTP). The BLAST hits with more than 80% similarity, which were over 80% 686
in length, were considered potential candidate genes for transposition. When two singletons from 687
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30
maize were more similar to each other than they were to the sorghum syntenic orthologs, and one 688
of the two maize genes was syntenic to the sorghum, the non-syntenic copy of the gene was 689
defined as a potentially transposed duplicate gene. 690
691
Phylogenetic analysis and identification of genes encoding m6A 692
functional factors 693
The Arabidopsis writer, eraser, and reader of m6A modification were used, as previously described 694
(Duan et al., 2017; Ruzicka et al., 2017; Arribas-Hernandez et al., 2018; Scutenaire et al., 2018; 695
Wei et al., 2018). The annotated protein sequences of three species (Arabidopsis thaliana 696
Araport11, Oryza sativa v7, and Sorghum bicolor v3.1.1) were downloaded from Phytozome V12 697
(https://phytozome.jgi.doe.gov/pz/portal.html). The Arabidopsis sequences were used as query 698
sequences to obtain homologous proteins in three other species using local BLASTP with a cutoff 699
as E-value ≤10-5. Multiple sequence alignments of candidate full-length amino acid sequences 700
were performed using MUSCLE with default options in the MEGA 7 software (Kumar et al., 701
2016). Phylogenetic trees were generated using the neighbor-joining method with 1,000 702
bootstraps. 703
704
Dot blot assay 705
The dot blot assay was performed following a previously published protocol (Nagarajan et al., 706
2019). In brief, we randomly chose two m6A peaks from our m6A-seq data that contained the 707
UGUAU and UGUAC motifs, respectively. The two sequences were used as templates to 708
synthesize four RNA oligos that contained either m6A or A at a single internal position within 709
URUAY motif. Oligos were denatured at 72°C in a heat block for 3 min. Then the samples were 710
loaded to the Amersham Hybond-N+ membrane (RPN119B, GE Healthcare). Membrane was then 711
UV crosslinked in a HL-2000 HybriLinkerTM Hybridization Oven. After crosslinking, membrane 712
was washed in 10 ml of wash buffer for 5 min and then blocked in 10 ml of blocking buffer for 1 713
hr at room temperature with gentle shaking. Subsequently, membrane was incubated with 714
anti-m6A antibody (Synaptic Systems Cat. No. 202003, diluted 1:500) overnight at 4°C. 715
Membrane was then washed in 10 ml of the wash buffer for 5 min three times, followed by 716
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31
incubation with HRP-conjugated mouse anti-rabbit IgG (Santa Cruz Biotechnology Cat. No. 717
sc-2357, diluted 1:10000) for 1 hr at room temperature. Membrane was again washed in 10 ml of 718
the wash buffer for 10 min four times. Then, membrane was incubated with 5 ml of ECL Western 719
Blotting Substrate for 5 min in darkness at room temperature and exposed with Hyperfilm ECL to 720
a proper exposure period. 721
722
Measurement of gene expression levels using real-time quantitative 723
PCR (qPCR) 724
Total RNA was extracted following above described methods, and the total RNA was treated with 725
DNaseI (Code No. 2270A, TaKaRa). First-strand cDNA was synthesized using PrimeScriptTM II 726
1st Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Code No. 6210A, TaKaRa) according to the manufacturer’s 727
instructions. qPCR was performed in three biological replicates × three technical replicates using 728
CFX96 Real-Time PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad) with TB GreenTM Premix Ex TaqTM II (Tli 729
RNaseH Plus) (Code No. RR820A, TaKaRa). The Cyclophilin (GenBank: M55021) was used as 730
an internal control (Lin et al., 2014). The 2-ΔΔCT method was used to calculate the gene expression 731
levels. The primers used for RT-qPCR are listed in Supplemental Table S7. 732
733
Global m6A quantification 734
Total RNA isolation and two rounds of PolyA+ mRNA selection was performed following above 735
described methods. The change of global m6A levels in mRNA was measured by EpiQuik m6A 736
RNA Methylation Quantification Kit (Colorimetric) (Epigentek Cat. No. P-9005) following the 737
manufacturer’s protocol. 738
739
Measurement of m6A methylation levels of specific m6A peaks using 740
m6A-IP-qPCR 741
For validation of m6A-seq results, m6A immunoprecipitation was performed using WW and DS 742
B73 and Han21 samples, respectively. RNA samples were fragmented into ~300-nucleotide-long 743
fragments. Fragmented RNA was incubated for 2 hr at 4°C with 0.5 mg/mL anti-m6A polyclonal 744
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32
antibody (Synaptic Systems Cat. No. 202003). After ethanol precipitation, the input RNA and 745
immunoprecipitated RNA were subjected to reverse transcription and qPCR assays. The 746
Cyclophilin (GenBank: M55021) was used as an internal control, since (1) Cyclophilin mRNA did 747
not show any obvious m6A peak from m6A-seq data; (2) Cyclophilin showed relatively invariant 748
expression levels between WW and DS samples; and (3) Cyclophilin is considered to be a 749
housekeeping gene. Samples were performed in three biological replicates × three technical 750
replicates. The m6A level of specific mRNA fragments was calculated by the ratio of RNA 751
abundances, IP/input, as previously described (Shen et al., 2016). Briefly, relative enrichment of 752
each fragment was calculated first by normalizing the amount of a target cDNA fragment against 753
that of internal control, and then by normalizing the value for the immunoprecipitated sample 754
against that for the input. The primers used for m6A-IP-qPCR are listed in Supplemental Table S7. 755
756
Physiological phenotypes of maize B73 and Han21 757
Seeds of the maize inbred lines, Han21 and B73, were germinated, and seedlings were 758
transplanted into pots filled with sand and transferred to a growth chamber with controlled 759
environmental conditions (16 hr light/8 hr dark cycle, 28°C day/26°C night temperature). The 760
relative water content of soil was maintained at 80% of the soil moisture capacity for well-watered 761
seedlings and at 40% of soil moisture capacity for drought-stressed seedlings. 762
To measure the relative water content of leaves, fresh leaves were harvested and weighed to 763
determine the fresh weight (FW). Leaves were then saturated in water for 24 hr at 4°C and 764
weighed for the turgid weight (TW). Lastly, leaves were dried in an oven at 80°C for 24 hr, and 765
the dry weight (DW) was measured. The RWC (%) was calculated as (FW – DW) / (TW – DW) × 766
100. 767
To measure the rate of water loss, fresh leaves were harvested, weighed for the FW, and then 768
placed in a culture dish for 24 hr (22°C and 70% relative humidity) to measure the dehydrated 769
weight (W24). Then, samples were dried in an oven at 80°C for 24 hr, and the DW was measured. 770
The rate of water loss (%) was calculated as (FW – W24) / DW × 100. 771
772
Statistical analysis 773
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33
The Student’s t-test was performed using t.test function in R package. The χ2 test was performed 774
using chisq.test function in R package. 775
776
Accession numbers 777
All sequencing data have been deposited into the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s 778
Sequence Read Archive database under the accession numbers SRP153627 and SRP125635. 779
780
Supplemental Data 781
Supplemental Figure S1. Distribution pattern of m6A-IP reads along transcripts. 782
Supplemental Figure S2. Intersection among m6A peaks identified in three biological replicates 783
of four experimental conditions. 784
Supplemental Figure S3. Correlation of m6A peak abundance among three biological replicates 785
in four experimental conditions. 786
Supplemental Figure S4. Distribution of m6A peaks in four experimental conditions. 787
Supplemental Figure S5. Both RRACH and URUAY motifs are enriched within m6A peaks in 788
maize and Arabidopsis. 789
Supplemental Figure S6. The enriched RRACH and URUAY motifs identified from m6A peaks 790
in each replicated sample. 791
Supplemental Figure S7. Dot blot analysis demonstrates m6A antibody specificity for URUAY 792
motif. 793
Supplemental Figure S8. Statistical significance of correlation coefficients between the 794
frequency of m6A genes with different gene features. 795
Supplemental Figure S9. Statistical significance of correlation coefficients between the 796
frequency of m6A genes with different gene features in B73 and Han21. 797
Supplemental Figure S10. Comparison of gene features (exon number, GC content, and intron 798
length) among different types of m6A genes in B73 and Han21, respectively. 799
Supplemental Figure S11. Comparison of m6A genes in B73 and Han21. 800
Supplemental Figure S12. Comparison of sequence variation patterns between m6A genes and 801
non-m6A genes. 802
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34
Supplemental Figure S13. Comparison of singleton-duplication ratio of m6A genes and total 803
subgenome genes excluding tandem duplicates in maize1 and maize2. 804
Supplemental Figure S14. Comparison of Ka (nonsynonymous substitution), Ks (synonymous 805
substitution), and ω (evolutionary rate) values of m6A genes and non-m6A genes. 806
Supplemental Figure S15. Comparison of evolutionary time (Ks) of three categories of 807
duplicates (identical-m6A [IM] pattern, diverged-m6A [DM] pattern, and non-m6A [NM] pattern). 808
Supplemental Figure S16. Pairwise comparison of frequencies of m6A divergence among maize1 809
transposition, maize2 transposition, and duplicates without transposition. 810
Supplemental Figure S17. Comparison of expression abundance between duplicates and 811
singletons of genes with m6A modification. 812
Supplemental Figure S18. Phylogenetic relationship of m6A functional factors among maize, 813
sorghum, and rice. 814
Supplemental Figure S19. Relative mRNA levels of m6A functional factors in well-watered 815
(WW) and drought-stressed (DS) seedling samples of B73 and Han21. 816
Supplemental Figure S20. Hypomethylation of m6A induced by drought stress in B73 and 817
Han21. 818
Supplemental Figure S21. Functional characteristics of differentially methylated peaks (DMPs) 819
in the context of genic location in B73 and Han21. 820
Supplemental Figure S22. Phenotypic responses of B73 and Han21 under well-watered (WW) 821
and drought-stressed (DS) conditions. 822
Supplemental Figure S23. Genes containing drought-induced hypomethylated peaks are involved 823
in various biological processes of plant development and abiotic stress. 824
Supplemental Figure S24. Dynamic m6A peaks of five drought-responsive genes (ZmVI2, 825
ZmACT7, ZmCRE4, ZmCRE10, and ZmWSD1) in B73 and Han21. 826
Supplemental Figure S25. Validation of m6A peaks in five drought-responsive genes (ZmVI2, 827
ZmACT7, ZmCRE4, ZmCRE10, and ZmWSD1). 828
Supplemental Table S1. Sequenced and mapped reads in m6A-seq, input RNA-seq, and 829
mRNA-seq samples. 830
Supplemental Table S2. Characterization of maize genes regarding m6A modification and 831
duplicate status. 832
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35
Supplemental Table S3. Frequency of m6A peaks containing RRACH motif and URUAY motif in 833
maize and Arabidopsis. 834
Supplemental Table S4. Correlation of m6A gene frequency with sequence features. 835
Supplemental Table S5. Comparison of evolutionary rates of m6A genes involved and not 836
involved in tandem duplication (TD). 837
Supplemental Table S6. Differentially methylated peaks in B73 and Han21 in response to 838
drought stress. 839
Supplemental Table S7. Primers used in this study. 840
841
Acknowledgements 842
We thank all our lab members at NWAFU for their discussion on the project. The authors declare 843
that they have no conflict of interest. 844
845
Tables 846
Table 1. Comparison of evolutionary rates (ω) of m6A singletons and m6A duplicates, and 847
non-m6A singletons and non-m6A duplicates in maize1 and maize2, respectively. 848
Comparison m6A singletons m6A duplicates P-value a
Maize1 0.2485 ± 0.1560 0.2256 ± 0.1617 < 0.0001
Maize2 0.2598 ± 0.1631 0.2283 ± 0.1568 < 0.0001
P-value a 0.0101 0.2861
Comparison non-m6A singletons non-m6A duplicates P-value a
Maize1 0.2372 ± 0.7533 0.2088 ± 0.1625 0.0108
Maize2 0.2330 ± 0.1734 0.2146 ± 0.1632 < 0.0001
P-value a 0.4050 0.0244
a Statistical analysis was conducted using the Student’s t test 849
850
Figure Legends 851
Figure 1. Overview of m6A methylome in maize. (A) Fractions and (B) relative enrichment of 852
m6A peaks in five non-overlapping transcript segments: 5′-untranslated regions (5′ UTRs), start 853
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36
codons (200-nt window centered on the translational start sites), coding sequences (CDS), stop 854
codons (200-nt window centered on the translational stop codons), and 3′-untranslated regions (3′ 855
UTRs). (C) The motif on the top represents the canonical RRACH motif within 90.6% m6A peaks. 856
The motif on the bottom is the enriched URUAY motif. (D) The landscape of m6A genes and 857
distribution of genomic features across the maize genome. From outside to inside, each track 858
represents (I) frequency of m6A genes, (II) mean gene length, (III) mean guanine-cytosine (GC) 859
content, (IV) mean exon lengths, (V) mean intron lengths, (VI) mean exon number, and (VII) 860
mean distance to adjacent gene; larger distances are associated with centromeric sequences. 861
862
Figure 2. The correlation of m6A genes with multiple gene features. (A–D) Correlations 863
between the frequency of m6A genes and mean gene length, mean exon number, mean 864
guanine-cytosine (GC) content, and mean distance to adjacent gene. (E–G) Comparison of gene 865
features (exon number, GC content, and intron length) among different m6A gene types. Genes are 866
divided into three categories, according to the number of m6A sites per gene. Statistical analysis 867
was conducted using the Student’s t-test. **, P-value < 0.001. (H) Density plot of gene length for 868
three gene categories. 869
870
Figure 3. Evolutionary influences on RNA m6A methylome bias between two maize 871
subgenomes. (A) Comparison of singleton-duplication ratio of m6A genes and total subgenome 872
genes in maize1 and maize2. Statistical analysis was conducted using the χ2 test. **, P-value < 873
0.001. (B) Comparison of m6A genes frequency in maize1 singletons and maize2 singletons. 874
Statistical analysis was conducted using the χ2 test. **, P-value < 0.001. (C–D) Comparison of 875
exon number and gene length of m6A singletons in maize1 and maize2. Statistical analysis was 876
conducted using the Student’s t-test. 877
878
Figure 4. RNA m6A modification enhanced gene stability and contributed to duplicate 879
retention. (A) Comparison of expression abundance between m6A genes and non-m6A genes. (B) 880
Comparison of ratios of duplicates to singletons in m6A genes and non-m6A genes. (C) 881
Comparison of expression abundance divergency between identical-m6A (IM) pattern duplicates 882
and diverged-m6A (DM) pattern duplicates. (D) Comparison of expression abundance between 883
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37
two diverged-m6A duplicate partners, methylated partner (MP) and non-methylated partner 884
(Non-MP). In A, C, and D, box-plots range from the first (Q1) to the third quartile (Q3) of the 885
distribution and represents the interquartile range (IQR). A line across the box indicates the 886
median. The whiskers are lines extending from Q1 and Q3 to end points that are defined as the 887
most extreme data points within Q1 − 1.5 × IQR and Q3 + 1.5 × IQR, respectively. Statistical 888
analysis was conducted using the Student’s t-test. **, P-value < 0.001. In B, statistical analysis 889
was conducted using the χ2 test. **, P-value < 0.001. 890
891
Figure 5. Evidences for co-evolution of m6A genes and transposon elements (TEs). (A) 892
Comparison of distance to the nearest TEs between m6A genes and non-m6A genes. (B) 893
Comparison of TE frequency between m6A genes and non-m6A genes. (C) Comparison of 894
evolutionary rates between m6A genes and non-m6A genes. (D) Comparison of evolutionary rates 895
between TE-related m6A genes and non-TE-related m6A genes. (E) Comparison of frequency of 896
m6A methylation between tandem duplicated (TD) genes and non-TD genes. (F) Comparison of 897
frequencies of diverged-m6A (DM) pattern and identical-m6A (IM) pattern between TD clusters 898
and whole genome duplication (WGD) pairs. (G) Comparison of distance to the nearest TEs 899
between m6A TD genes and m6A non-TD genes. (H) Comparison of frequency of TEs between 900
m6A TD genes and m6A non-TD genes. In A, C, D, G, box-plots range from the first (Q1) to the 901
third quartile (Q3) of the distribution and represents the interquartile range (IQR). A line across the 902
box indicates the median. The whiskers are lines extending from Q1 and Q3 to end points that are 903
defined as the most extreme data points within Q1 − 1.5 × IQR and Q3 + 1.5 × IQR, respectively. 904
Statistical analysis was conducted using the Student’s t-test. *, P-value < 0.05; **, P-value < 905
0.001. In B, E, F, H, statistical analysis was conducted using the χ2 test. *, P-value < 0.05; **, 906
P-value < 0.001. 907
908
Figure 6. Evolutionary dynamics of genes encoding m6A functional factors. (A) Orthologous 909
relationships of genes encoding m6A functional factors between maize and sorghum. Purple boxes 910
indicate maize genes, and yellow boxes indicate sorghum genes. Green boxes represent syntenic 911
orthologs of m6A functional factors. (B) Evolutionary rates of maize m6A functional factors 912
compared with their syntenic homologs in sorghum. (C) RNA-seq expression profiles of genes 913
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38
encoding m6A functional factors. DS, drought-stressed; WW, well-watered. Data are means ± SD 914
(n=3, three biological replicates). a, the significance test of differential expression was conducted 915
using cuffdiff software, false discovery rate (FDR)-adjusted P-value ≤ 0.05. 916
917
918
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