Nucleotides are organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules within all life-forms on Earth. Nucleotides are obtained in the diet and are also synthesized from common nutrients by the liver.
Nucleobases are nitrogen-containing biological compounds that form nucleosides, which, in turn, are components of nucleotides, with all of these monomers constituting the basic building blocks of nucleic acids. The ability of nucleobases to form base pairs and to stack one upon another leads directly to long-chain helical structures such as ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Five nucleobases—adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), thymine (T), and uracil (U)—are called primary or canonical. They function as the fundamental units of the genetic code, with the bases A, G, C, and T being found in DNA while A, G, C, and U are found in RNA. Thymine and uracil are distinguished by merely the presence or absence of a methyl group on the fifth carbon (C5) of these heterocyclic six-membered rings. In addition, some viruses have aminoadenine (Z) instead of adenine. It differs in having an extra amine group, creating a more stable bond to thymine.
In the chemical sciences, methylation denotes the addition of a methyl group on a substrate, or the substitution of an atom by a methyl group. Methylation is a form of alkylation, with a methyl group replacing a hydrogen atom. These terms are commonly used in chemistry, biochemistry, soil science, and the biological sciences.
The CpG sites or CG sites are regions of DNA where a cytosine nucleotide is followed by a guanine nucleotide in the linear sequence of bases along its 5' → 3' direction. CpG sites occur with high frequency in genomic regions called CpG islands.
Azacitidine, sold under the brand name Vidaza among others, is a medication used for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome, myeloid leukemia, and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. It is a chemical analog of cytidine, a nucleoside in DNA and RNA. Azacitidine and its deoxy derivative, decitabine were first synthesized in Czechoslovakia as potential chemotherapeutic agents for cancer.
Transcriptional modification or co-transcriptional modification is a set of biological processes common to most eukaryotic cells by which an RNA primary transcript is chemically altered following transcription from a gene to produce a mature, functional RNA molecule that can then leave the nucleus and perform any of a variety of different functions in the cell. There are many types of post-transcriptional modifications achieved through a diverse class of molecular mechanisms.
Methyltransferases are a large group of enzymes that all methylate their substrates but can be split into several subclasses based on their structural features. The most common class of methyltransferases is class I, all of which contain a Rossmann fold for binding S-Adenosyl methionine (SAM). Class II methyltransferases contain a SET domain, which are exemplified by SET domain histone methyltransferases, and class III methyltransferases, which are membrane associated. Methyltransferases can also be grouped as different types utilizing different substrates in methyl transfer reactions. These types include protein methyltransferases, DNA/RNA methyltransferases, natural product methyltransferases, and non-SAM dependent methyltransferases. SAM is the classical methyl donor for methyltransferases, however, examples of other methyl donors are seen in nature. The general mechanism for methyl transfer is a SN2-like nucleophilic attack where the methionine sulfur serves as the leaving group and the methyl group attached to it acts as the electrophile that transfers the methyl group to the enzyme substrate. SAM is converted to S-Adenosyl homocysteine (SAH) during this process. The breaking of the SAM-methyl bond and the formation of the substrate-methyl bond happen nearly simultaneously. These enzymatic reactions are found in many pathways and are implicated in genetic diseases, cancer, and metabolic diseases. Another type of methyl transfer is the radical S-Adenosyl methionine (SAM) which is the methylation of unactivated carbon atoms in primary metabolites, proteins, lipids, and RNA.
A capping enzyme (CE) is an enzyme that catalyzes the attachment of the 5' cap to messenger RNA molecules that are in the process of being synthesized in the cell nucleus during the first stages of gene expression. The addition of the cap occurs co-transcriptionally, after the growing RNA molecule contains as little as 25 nucleotides. The enzymatic reaction is catalyzed specifically by the phosphorylated carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. The 5' cap is therefore specific to RNAs synthesized by this polymerase rather than those synthesized by RNA polymerase I or RNA polymerase III. Pre-mRNA undergoes a series of modifications - 5' capping, splicing and 3' polyadenylation before becoming mature mRNA that exits the nucleus to be translated into functional proteins and capping of the 5' end is the first of these modifications. Three enzymes, RNA triphosphatase, guanylyltransferase, and methyltransferase are involved in the addition of the methylated 5' cap to the mRNA.
In enzymology, a mRNA (guanine-N7-)-methyltransferase also known as mRNA cap guanine-N7 methyltransferase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase (also known as AGT, MGMT or AGAT) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene. O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase is crucial for genome stability. It repairs the naturally occurring mutagenic DNA lesion O6-methylguanine back to guanine and prevents mismatch and errors during DNA replication and transcription. Accordingly, loss of MGMT increases the carcinogenic risk in mice after exposure to alkylating agents. The two bacterial isozymes are Ada and Ogt.
N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) was originally identified and partially characterised in the 1970s, and is an abundant modification in mRNA and DNA. It is found within some viruses, and most eukaryotes including mammals, insects, plants and yeast. It is also found in tRNA, rRNA, and small nuclear RNA (snRNA) as well as several long non-coding RNA, such as Xist.
16S rRNA (guanine527-N7)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.170, ribosomal RNA small subunit methyltransferase G, 16S rRNA methyltransferase RsmG, GidB, rsmG (gene)) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:16S rRNA (guanine527-N7)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
16S rRNA (guanine966-N2)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.171, yhhF (gene), rsmD (gene), m2G966 methyltransferase) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:16S rRNA (guanine966-N2)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
16S rRNA (guanine1405-N7)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.179, methyltransferase Sgm, m7G1405 Mtase, Sgm Mtase, Sgm, sisomicin-gentamicin methyltransferase, sisomicin-gentamicin methylase, GrmA, RmtB, RmtC, ArmA) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:16S rRNA (guanine1405-N7)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
23S rRNA (guanine748-N1)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.188, Rlma(II), Rlma2, 23S rRNA m1G748 methyltransferase, RlmaII, Rlma II, tylosin-resistance methyltransferase RlmA(II), TlrB, rRNA large subunit methyltransferase II) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:23S rRNA (guanine748-N1)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
TRNA (guanine10-N2)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.214, (m2G10) methyltransferase, Trm11-Trm112 complex) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:tRNA (guanine10-N2)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
TRNA (guanine9-N1)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.221, Trm10p, tRNA(m1G9/m1A9)-methyltransferase, tRNA(m1G9/m1A9)MTase, tRNA (guanine-N(1)-)-methyltransferase, tRNA m1G9-methyltransferase, tRNA m1G9 MTase) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:tRNA (guanine9-N1)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
tRNA (guanine37-N1)-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.228, TrmD, tRNA (m1G37) methyltransferase, transfer RNA (m1G37) methyltransferase, Trm5p, TRMT5, tRNA-(N1G37) methyltransferase, MJ0883 (gene)) is an enzyme with systematic name S-adenosyl-L-methionine:tRNA (guanine37-N1)-methyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
Within the field of molecular biology, the epitranscriptome includes all the biochemical modifications of the RNA within a cell. In analogy to epigenetics that describes "functionally relevant changes to the genome that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence", epitranscriptomics involves all functionally relevant changes to the transcriptome that do not involve a change in the ribonucleotide sequence. Thus, the epitranscriptome can be defined as the ensemble of such functionally relevant changes.
7-Methylguanine is a modified purine nucleobase. It is a methylated version of guanine. The 7-methylguanine nucleoside is called 7-methylguanosine. However, the free 7-methylguanine base is not involved in the synthesis of nucleotides and not incorporated directly into nucleic acids. 7-Methylguanine is a natural inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and tRNA guanine transglycosylase (TGT) - and thus may exert anticancer activity. For example, it was demonstrated that 7-methylguanine could accelerate apoptotic death of BRCA1-deficient breast cancer cells induced by cisplatin and doxorubicin.
