RNA modifications play essential roles in modulating RNA function, stability, and fate across all kingdoms of life. The entirety of the RNA modifications within a cell is defined as the epitranscriptome. While eukaryotic RNA modifications are intensively studied, understanding bacterial RNA modifications remains limited, and knowledge about bacteriophage RNA modifications is almost nonexistent. In this review, we shed light on known mechanisms of bacterial RNA modifications and propose how this knowledge might be extended to bacteriophages. We build hypotheses on enzymes potentially responsible for regulating the epitranscriptome of bacteriophages and their host. This review highlights the exciting prospects of uncovering the unexplored field of bacteriophage epitranscriptomics and its potential role to shape bacteriophage–host interactions.

RNA 修饰在调节所有生命领域的 RNA 功能、稳定性和命运方面发挥着重要作用。细胞内的全部 RNA 修饰被定义为表观转录组。尽管对真核 RNA 修饰进行了深入研究，但对细菌 RNA 修饰的了解仍然有限，并且对噬菌体 RNA 修饰的了解几乎不存在。在这篇综述中，我们阐明了细菌 RNA 修饰的已知机制，并提出了如何将这些知识扩展到噬菌体。我们对可能负责调节噬菌体及其宿主表观转录组的酶建立了假设。这篇综述强调了揭示噬菌体表观转录组学这一未经探索的领域及其在塑造噬菌体-宿主相互作用方面的潜在作用的令人兴奋的前景。