Potential functions of mammalian circRNA

Abstract

Circular RNAs(circRNA) were described and modeled decades ago but considered rather rare RNAs. However, recent researches discovered that these special RNAs are widely produced across species by so-called back-splicing mechanics. It has been reported that circRNAs play an important role in mammalian neural tissues, protein synthesis and protein interaction. Some evidence suggest circRNA are relevant to different human diseases including cancer. However, more hidden functions of circRNAs are still to be explored. Legnini et al. reported circRNAs expression is highly relevant to in muscle differentiation and diseases. They identified circ-ZNF609, a highly conserved circular RNA expressed in both murine and human myoblasts, which encodes a protein.