Early history of circular RNAs, children of splicing

ABSTRACT

In this commentary we briefly summarize early work on circular RNAs derived from spliceosome mediated circularization. We highlight how this early work inspired work on the basic mechanisms of nuclear RNA splicing, the possible function of circular RNAs and the potential uses of circular RNAs as tools in biomedicine. Recent developments in the study of circular RNAs, summarized in this volume, have brought these questions back to the foreground.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular RNA
• exon circularization
• spliceosome mediated splicing
• splice site approximation
• Sry

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Acnowledgement

M.A.G-B. acknowledges funding from The University of Texas Medical Branch, and from the Duke-NUS Signature Research Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases funded by the Agency for Science,Technology and Research, Singapore, and the Ministry of Health, Singapore.