Young Researcher’s Seminar

Seminar & Events Detail

Lecture Title	"Exploring and Engineering non-site-specific DNA/RNA Methyltransferases for Development of DNA/RNA Labeling Tools"
Date	Friday 22 August 2025 15:00 to 16:00
Lecturer	Yoshiki Ochiai (OIST)
Place	Yamate Building 3, 2nd floor, Common Seminar Room
Summary	DNA/RNA methyltransferases (MTases) hold great promise as tools for synthetic biology, enabling the modulation of methylation states and covalent labeling of nucleic acids. However, engineering of MTases remains challenging due to limited insights into their structure–function relationships. In this study, we applied sequence-based protein engineering to explore the sequence space of M.EcoGII, a DNA/RNA MTase notable for its lack of sequence specificity and dual substrate activity. Through ancestral sequence reconstruction, we developed Super RNA EcoGII methyltransferase (SUPREM), a non-site-specific RNA MTase with enhanced expression, thermostability, and RNA methylation activity compared to the M.EcoGII wild-type (Ochiai et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2024). Furthermore, we identified a DNA-specific M.EcoGII homolog via sequence similarity network analysis. Together, these studies developed SUPREM and its M.EcoGII homolog enzymes, which show promise as versatile tools for in vivo DNA and RNA methylation.
Other	Seminar will be given in Japanese with English slides.
Contact	Ryota IINO (iino@ims.ac.jp)

Awards & Honors International collaboration