Skeletal muscle serves fundamental roles in organismal health. Gene expression fluctuations are critical for muscle homeostasis and the response to environmental insults. Yet, little is known about post-transcriptional mechanisms regulating such fluctuations while impacting muscle proteome. Here we report genome-wide analysis of mRNA methyladenosine (m6A) dynamics of skeletal muscle hypertrophic growth following overload-induced stress. We show that increases in METTL3 (the m6A enzyme), and concomitantly m6A, control skeletal muscle size during hypertrophy; exogenous delivery of METTL3 induces skeletal muscle growth, even without external triggers. We also show that METTL3 represses activin type 2 A receptors (ACVR2A) synthesis, blunting activation of anti-hypertrophic signaling. Notably, myofiber-specific conditional genetic deletion of METTL3 caused spontaneous muscle wasting over time and abrogated overload-induced hypertrophy; a phenotype reverted by co-administration of a myostatin inhibitor. These studies identify a previously unrecognized post-transcriptional mechanism promoting the hypertrophic response of skeletal muscle via control of myostatin signaling.
© 2022. The Author(s).