M6A2Target: a comprehensive database for targets of m 6 A writers, erasers and readers

• Published in: Briefings in bioinformatics 2021-05, Vol.22 (3)
• Main Authors: Deng, Shuang, Zhang, Hongwan, Zhu, Kaiyu, Li, Xingyang, Ye, Ying, Li, Rui, Liu, Xuefei, Lin, Dongxin, Zuo, Zhixiang, Zheng, Jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1467-5463; 1477-4054
• DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbaa055

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant posttranscriptional modification in mammalian mRNA molecules and has a crucial function in the regulation of many fundamental biological processes. The m6A modification is a dynamic and reversible process regulated by a series of writers, erasers and readers (WERs). Different WERs might have different functions, and even the same WER might function differently in different conditions, which are mostly due to different downstream genes being targeted by the WERs. Therefore, identification of the targets of WERs is particularly important for elucidating this dynamic modification. However, there is still no public repository to host the known targets of WERs. Therefore, we developed the m6A WER target gene database (m6A2Target) to provide a comprehensive resource of the targets of m6A WERs. M6A2Target provides a user-friendly interface to present WER targets in two different modules: ‘Validated Targets’, referred to as WER targets identified from low-throughput studies, and ‘Potential Targets’, including WER targets analyzed from high-throughput studies. Compared to other existing m6A-associated databases, m6A2Target is the first specific resource for m6A WER target genes. M6A2Target is freely accessible at http://m6a2target.canceromics.org.