Tagline: A comprehensive atlas of soybean m6A writers, erasers, and readers with evolution, duplication, networks, miRNA targeting, and stress-expression insights.

📄 Paper (PLOS ONE)

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most abundant mRNA modifications in eukaryotes, regulating plant development and stress responses.
This repository accompanies a genome-wide study in soybean, where we identified and characterized 42 m6A regulatory genes grouped into writers, erasers, and readers.

The analyses cover phylogeny, gene structures, duplication/evolution, interaction networks, miRNA regulation, and stress-specific expression profiling.

• 42 m6A genes cataloged across writers/erasers/readers with diverse gene architectures.
• 18 duplication events detected, evolving mainly under purifying selection.
• Network analysis showed weaker interactions among erasers; hub genes identified.
• miRNA–gene regulation stronger on writers compared to erasers/readers.
• Stress expression patterns:
  • GmECT9, GmECT13, GmECT17 highly expressed in roots and nodules.
  • GmMTB2 strongly upregulated and GmALKBH9B2 strongly downregulated under combined drought + heat stress.
  • Under mosaic virus infection: GmALKBH9B4 was downregulated, while GmMTB1, GmMTB2, GmALKBH9B1 were upregulated.

This framework provides new insight into the molecular basis of m6A regulation in soybean and its relevance to stress resilience and plant development.

If you use this repository, please cite our article:

Genome-wide identification and characterization of m6A regulatory genes in soybean: Insights into evolution, miRNA interactions, and stress responses
PLOS ONE (2025) – DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328773

@article{soybean_m6A_plosone,
  title   = {Genome-wide identification and characterization of m6A regulatory genes in soybean: Insights into evolution, miRNA interactions, and stress responses},
  journal = {PLOS ONE},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.1371/journal.pone.0328773}
}