环状 RNA 表达的细胞类型特异性特征。

Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America.

PLoS Genet. 2013;9(9):e1003777. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003777. Epub 2013 Sep 5.

Thousands of loci in the human and mouse genomes give rise to circular RNA transcripts; at many of these loci, the predominant RNA isoform is a circle. Using an improved computational approach for circular RNA identification, we found widespread circular RNA expression in Drosophila melanogaster and estimate that in humans, circular RNA may account for 1% as many molecules as poly(A) RNA. Analysis of data from the ENCODE consortium revealed that the repertoire of genes expressing circular RNA, the ratio of circular to linear transcripts for each gene, and even the pattern of splice isoforms of circular RNAs from each gene were cell-type specific. These results suggest that biogenesis of circular RNA is an integral, conserved, and regulated feature of the gene expression program.

人类和小鼠基因组中的数千个基因位点产生环状 RNA 转录本；在这些基因位点中的许多位点，主要的 RNA 异构体是一个环。使用一种改进的环状 RNA 鉴定计算方法，我们在果蝇中发现了广泛的环状 RNA 表达，并估计在人类中，环状 RNA 可能占聚（A）RNA 分子的 1%。对 ENCODE 联盟数据的分析表明，表达环状 RNA 的基因组合，每个基因的环状 RNA 与线性 RNA 的比例，甚至来自每个基因的环状 RNA 的剪接异构体模式都是细胞类型特异性的。这些结果表明，环状 RNA 的生物发生是基因表达程序的一个完整、保守和受调控的特征。