RNA modifications in plant biotic interactions

The chemical modification of DNA and proteins is an efficient way of regulating molecular and biological function and affects a plethora of signalling pathways in eukaryotes. Similarly, recent progress in epitranscriptomics shows that RNA modifications also play crucial roles in diverse biological processes. Since their discovery in the 1970s, scientists have attempted to decipher the identity and functions of these modifications in different biological systems. During the past decade, mounting evidence suggests that RNA modification pathways function in plants, and much effort has been put into deciphering their physiological relevance. With the availability of high-resolution maps of different RNA modifications in various cellular RNAs and their functions gradually being uncovered, our understanding of the contributions of this additional layer of regulation is beginning to take shape. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the major RNA modifications discovered in plants, with an emphasis on N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A), the one most extensively studied; we focus on discussing the functional significance of effector components involved in m⁶A modification, its diverse roles in plant biotic interactions, in particularly in plant-virus, plant-bacteria, plant-fungi, and plant-insect interactions, highlight new technological developments that are driving research advance, and also pose new challenges in this research field.