August 10, 2025

Isoform-level profiling of m

Key Points

MAIN FINDING: The study identified 57,000 m6A sites within 15,000 RNA isoforms across three human brain regions.
KEY EVIDENCE: Isoform-level analysis revealed specific m6A modifications enriched in excitatory neurons, particularly in the prefrontal cortex.
APPROACH: Oxford Nanopore direct RNA sequencing was used to profile the transcriptome and epitranscriptome of postmortem brain tissue.
SIGNIFICANCE: Findings provide insights into isoform-specific RNA modifications with implications for understanding brain function and disease.

Abstract

The RNA modification N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is highly abundant in human brain and implicated in neurological disorders. Profiling m6A within RNA isoforms is a critical step toward understanding the complex mechanisms that underpin brain function and disease; however, we lack an isoform-level atlas of m6A sites in the brain. We applied Oxford Nanopore direct RNA sequencing (DRS) to three postmortem human brain regions-prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum-to simultaneously investigate the transcriptome and epitranscriptome at the isoform level. We identified 57,000 m6A sites within 15,000 isoforms, revealing both isoform- and brain region-specific patterning of m6A modifications. The prefrontal cortex exhibited a distinctive profile of specifically modified isoforms enriched in excitatory neurons and had the highest proportion of unannotated m6A sites. A population of isoforms were hypermodified and associated with excitatory neurons in all brain regions. Our results demonstrate the utility of isoform-level profiling of RNA modifications and provide insights into brain region specificity with implications for development and disease.

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