Epitranscriptomic chemical RNA modifications have recently emerged as a new layer of post-transcriptional gene regulation. Recent advancements in methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (m6A-seq) and mass spectrometry have revealed widespread chemical modifications on diverse RNAs, including mRNA, tRNA, rRNA, microRNA, and long-noncoding RNA. Currently, > 170 RNA modifications have been identified in living organisms. Among them, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent modification found in eukaryotic mRNAs. In recent years, cellular factors adding, deleting, and interpreting m6A marks, designated as “writers” (methyltransferases), “erasers” (demethylases), and “readers” (m6A-binding proteins), respectively, have been identified in plants and animals. An emerging body of evidence shows that methylation on mRNAs affects diverse aspects of RNA metabolism, including stability, splicing, nucleus-to-cytoplasm export, alternative polyadenylation, and translation. In particular, the roles of writers, readers, and erasers in plants are rapidly uncovered, which clearly demonstrates that they are essential for plant growth and abiotic stress responses. In this talk, I will introduce several key findings via analyzing the mutants of m6A writers, erasers, and readers, which emphasizes the crucial roles of epitranscriptomic chemical mRNA methylation in the plant growth, development, and stress responses.

As we feel and experience problems associated with various plastics, cleaning and recycling the waste plastics with non-hazardous and economically affordable methods are urgently demanded. Indeed, worldwide annual production of plastics amounts from 350 MT to 400 MT yearly. Among the various plastics produced, polyethylene and polypropylene represent about 92% of the synthetic plastics produced, which are mostly used in the production of plastic bags, disposable containers, bottles, packaging materials, etc.

Questions are “Can accumulated current information about microbial physiology and biochemistry for biodegradation mechanisms on from C1 compound methane to polymer lignin shed light on cleaning the plastic polymers?

There have been numerous articles for microbial biodegradation of plastic polymers. In microbial communities, however, they believe that plastics with oxygen-incorporated functional groups such as PET, polyurethane, etc, might be subjected to biodegradation but plastics without oxygen in the crystalline film plastic structure like low density and high density polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene cannot be.

In the given time of the session, I want to share lessons learned from microbial oxidation processes to various compounds from methane to lignin to take challenge for cleaning plastic wastes through environmentally friendly methods.