- Record: found
- Abstract: not found
- Article: not found
The Biogenesis, Functions, and Challenges of Circular RNAs
Read this article at
There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Covalently closed circular RNAs (circRNAs) are produced by precursor mRNA back-splicing
of exons of thousands of genes in eukaryotes. circRNAs are generally expressed at
low levels and often exhibit cell-type-specific and tissue-specific patterns. Recent
studies have shown that their biogenesis requires spliceosomal machinery and can be
modulated by both cis complementary sequences and protein factors. The functions of
most circRNAs remain largely unexplored, but known functions include sequestration
of microRNAs or proteins, modulation of transcription and interference with splicing,
and even translation to produce polypeptides. However, challenges exist at multiple
levels to understanding of the regulation of circRNAs because of their circular conformation
and sequence overlap with linear mRNA counterparts. In this review, we survey the
recent progress on circRNA biogenesis and function and discuss technical obstacles
in circRNA studies.