3.3 BPH infestation decreased rice m6A
methylation positions
The average number of m6A sites in Nl-Nip group
(79,925) was lower than that in Nip control group (83,011) (Figure 1f,
Supporting Information: Table S2), and the dot-blot analysis of
m6A levels in rice total mRNAs had negative
correlation with BPH infestation, implying that m6A
modification of rice genomic mRNA was repressed under BPH infestation
(Figure 1g, Supporting Information: Figure S4). In addition, 42,062
specific m6A methylation positions were identified in
Nl-Nip group, suggesting that 51.3% of positions appeared following BPH
infestation (Supporting Information: Figure S5, Table S3). To examine
whether there are conserved motifs in m6A genes, we
compiled transcripts of all m6A genes from the four
treatments (Supporting Information: Table S4). Four supreme conserved
m6A modifications motifs were identified: GGACA
(36.17%, 35.87%), GGACU (24.12%, 23.70%), GGACC (20.99%, 21.11%),
and AGACU (18.72%, 19.32%), respectively, in Nip and Nl-Nip groups
(Supporting Information: Figure S6). We defined the Nip and Nl-Nip
consensus m6A methylation site as “RGACH” (R=A/G;
H=A/U/C), which corresponds with the previously reported in rice and
other plants (Parker et al., 2020).