m6A RNA demethylase AtALKBH9B promotes mobilization of a heat-activated long terminal repeat retrotransposon in Arabidopsis | Science Advances

Transposons are mobile and ubiquitous DNA molecules that can cause vast genomic alterations. In plants, it is well documented that transposon mobilization is strongly repressed by DNA methylation; however, its regulation at the posttranscriptional level remains relatively uninvestigated. Here, we suggest that transposon RNA is marked by m ⁶ A RNA methylation and can be localized in stress granules (SGs). Intriguingly, SG-localized AtALKBH9B selectively demethylates a heat-activated retroelement, Onsen , and thereby releases it from spatial confinement, allowing for its mobilization. In addition, we show evidence that m ⁶ A RNA methylation contributes to transpositional suppression by inhibiting virus-like particle assembly and extrachromosomal DNA production. In summary, this study unveils a previously unknown role for m ⁶ A in the suppression of transposon mobility and provides insight into how transposons counteract the m ⁶ A-mediated repression mechanism by hitchhiking the RNA demethylase of the host.