Rat BodyMap transcriptomes reveal unique circular RNA features across tissue types and developmental stages Article

Zhou, T, Xie, X, Li, M et al. (2018). Rat BodyMap transcriptomes reveal unique circular RNA features across tissue types and developmental stages . 24(11), 1443-1456. 10.1261/rna.067132.118

cited authors

  • Zhou, T; Xie, X; Li, M; Shi, J; Zhou, JJ; Knox, KS; Wang, T; Chen, Q; Gu, W

authors

abstract

  • Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a novel class of regulatory RNAs. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of circRNA expression profiles across 11 tissues and four developmental stages in rats, along with cross-species analyses in humans and mice. Although the expression of circRNAs is positively correlated with that of cognate mRNAs, highly expressed genes tend to splice a larger fraction of circular transcripts. Moreover, circRNAs exhibit higher tissue specificity than cognate mRNAs. Intriguingly, while we observed a monotonic increase of circRNA abundance with age in the rat brain, we further discovered a dynamic, age-dependent pattern of circRNA expression in the testes that is characterized by a dramatic increase with advancing stages of sexual maturity and a decrease with aging. The age-sensitive testicular circRNAs are highly associated with spermatogenesis, independent of cognate mRNA expression. The tissue/age implications of circRNAs suggest that they present unique physiological functions rather than simply occurring as occasional by-products of gene transcription.

publication date

  • November 1, 2018

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 1443

end page

  • 1456

volume

  • 24

issue

  • 11