Transcriptome-wide N6-methyladenosine modification profiling of long non-coding RNAs during replication of Marek’s disease virus in vitro

BACKGROUND: The newly discovered reversible N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) modification plays an important regulatory role in gene expression. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in Marek’s disease virus (MDV) replication but how m(6)A modifications in lncRNAs are affected during MDV infection is currently unknown. Herein, we profiled the transcriptome-wide m(6)A modification in lncRNAs in MDV-infected chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells. RESULTS: Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing results revealed that the lncRNA m(6)A modification is highly conserved with MDV infection increasing the expression of lncRNA m(6)A modified sites compared to uninfected cell controls. Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis revealed that lncRNA m(6)A modifications were highly associated with signaling pathways associated with MDV infection. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the alterations seen in transcriptome-wide m(6)A occurring in lncRNAs following MDV-infection suggest this process plays important regulatory roles during MDV replication. We report for the first time profiling of the alterations in transcriptome-wide m(6)A modification in lncRNAs of MDV-infected CEF cells.