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N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification and its methyltransferase METTL3 are crucial for pluripotency maintenance and early development, but the underlying mechanism is largely unclear. Here, we demonstrate that METTL3 directly interacts with the histone deacetylase HDAC2 in chromatin. HDAC2 knockout reduces METTL3 chromatin binding and m6A levels on HDAC2 target genes linked to lineage differentiation, whereas METTL3 deletion does not affect HDAC2 expression or histone acetylation. Knocking out either HDAC2 or METTL3 significantly impairs human embryonic stem cell differentiation. We further observe that genes with reduced m6A upon depletion of HDAC2 exhibit decreased RNA stability and translation, mediated by the m6A readers IGF2BPs and YTHDC2, respectively. Mechanistically, HDAC2 recruits METTL3 to mediate m6A deposition on target genes and regulate RNA stability and translation, thereby modulating stem cell lineage differentiation. These findings identify a functional interactor of METTL3 and clarify the role of the HDAC2-METTL3 axis in human ESCs.
Yang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.