Dynamic RNA 3′ Uridylation and Guanylation during Mitosis

Successful cell division involves highly regulated transcriptional and post-transcriptional control. The RNA poly(A) tail represents an important layer of RNA post-transcriptional regulation. Previous TAIL-seq analysis of S phase and M phase poly(A) tail information showed that only a small number of genes showed more than 2-fold change in their poly(A) tail length between the two cell cycle stages. In addition, the changes in poly(A) tail length between these two stages showed minimal impact on the translation of the genes as long as the poly(A) tails were longer than 20 nt. Therefore, the significance of poly(A) tail dynamics during the cell cycle remains largely unknown. Here, by re-analyzing the S phase and M phase TAIL-seq data, we uncovered an interesting global dynamics of RNA poly(A) tails in terms of their terminal modifications, implying global RNA regulation between mitotic cell cycles through poly(A) tail terminal modifications.