Single-molecule identification of the target RNAs of different RNA binding proteins simultaneously in cells

Abstract

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate nearly every aspect of mRNA processing and are important regulators of gene expression in cells. However, current methods for transcriptome-wide identification of RBP targets are limited since they examine only a single RBP at a time and since they do not provide information on the individual RNA molecules that are bound by a given RBP. Here, we overcome these limitations by developing TRIBE-STAMP, an approach for single-molecule detection of the target RNAs of two RNA binding proteins simultaneously in cells. We apply TRIBE-STAMP to the cytoplasmic m6A reader proteins YTHDF1, 2, and 3 and discover that individual mRNA molecules can be bound by more than one YTHDF protein throughout their lifetime, providing new insights into the function of YTHDF proteins in cells. TRIBE-STAMP is a highly versatile approach that enables single-molecule analysis of the targets of RBP pairs simultaneously in the same cells.