-Mediated circRNA Regulates Myogenesis by Targeting Ribosomal Protein Rpl7.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent a class of covalently closed single-stranded RNA molecules that are emerging as essential regulators of various biological processes. The circRNA originates from exon 2 of the gene in mice and was reported to be involved in acute promyelocytic leukemia and myocardial injury. However, the functions and mechanisms of in myogenesis are largely unknown. Here, to deepen our knowledge about the role of , we studied the expression and function of during skeletal myogenesis. We found that was mostly distributed in the cytoplasm, and dynamically and differentially expressed in various myogenesis systems in vitro and in vivo. Functionally, overexpression of inhibited myoblast proliferation and promoted myotube formation in C2C12 cells, whereas the opposite effects were observed after knockdown. Mechanistically, could directly bind to ribosomal protein Rpl7, an essential 60S preribosomal assembly factor, to inhibit ribosome translation. In addition, we verified that transcription factor directly bound to the promoter of and affected the expression of and in C2C12 myoblasts. Collectively, these findings identify as a candidate circRNA regulating ribosome biogenesis and myogenesis proliferation and differentiation.