N6-methyladenosine (m6A), or methylation of the N6 position of adenosine is a posttranscriptional modification of RNA. Due to a lack of analytical methods, N6-methyladenosine is poorly understood, but new evidence suggests that it is a very common base modification and important physiological regulator. N6-methyladenosine is markedly increased throughout brain development, and is enriched near stop codons, microRNA-binding sites and UTRs, which indicates a fundamental role in the regulation of gene expression. N6-methyladenosine is also highly conserved between human and mouse. The regulation of m6A modifications in mRNA has been linked to disease, where fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) has been has been reported to be a obesity risk gene. FTO is a m6A demethylase and polymorphisms that result in increased FTO expression are associated with increased body mass and risk of obesity.