Cells at early and late stages of infection with Senecavirus A: Comparative analysis of N6-methyladenosine modification on mRNAs

Infection with Senecavirus A (SVA) causes differential phenotypes in cells. In this study, cells were inoculated with SVA for culture. At 12 and 72 h post infection, cells were independently harvested for high-throughput RNA sequencing, and further methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing. The resultant data were comprehensively analyzed for mapping N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-modified profiles of SVA-infected cells. More importantly, m6A-modified regions were identified in the SVA genome. A dataset of m6A-modified mRNAs was generated for screening out differentially m6A-modified mRNAs, further subjected to a series of in-depth analyses. This study not only showed statistical differentiation of m6A-modified sites between two SVA-infected groups, but also demonstrated that SVA genome, as a positive-sense, single-stranded mRNA, itself could be modified through the m6A pattern. Out of the six samples of SVA mRNAs, only three were identified to be m6A-modified, implying that the epigenetic effect might not be a crucial driving force for SVA evolution.