Abstract

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification in eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNAs). M6A RNA methylation plays a role in all stages of RNA life cycle, from RNA processing, nuclear output, translation regulation to RNA degradation, indicating that m6A has various functions that affect RNA metabolism. Reading proteins play an important role in regulating the translation and stability of m6A mRNA. Recent studies have provided a further understanding of the molecular mechanism of the YTH domain protein family and enriched our understanding of the modification function of m6A. In this paper, the specific functions, mechanisms and interactions of the YTH domain protein family are reviewed, and the future research directions are prospected, which is expected to provide new ideas for clinical diagnosis and targeted therapy of cancer.