Read-through circular RNAs reveal the plasticity of RNA processing mechanisms in human cells

ABSTRACT

In the human genome, there are several genes whose primary transcripts are both canonically and non-canonically spliced to generate mRNAs and RNA circles, respectively. These RNA circles are a novel class of long non-coding RNAs that became known as circular RNAs (circRNAs). Recently, a new type of circRNA was discovered and called read-through circRNAs (rt-circRNAs). They are hybrid circles that include coding exons from two adjacent and similarly oriented genes. The function of rt-circRNAs, as well as the impact of read-through transcription in our transcriptome, remains to be elucidated. Although we have just begun to scratch it, here I discussed some insights that these fascinating circRNAs are already giving us about the plasticity of RNA processing in our cells.

KEYWORDS:

• Non-coding RNAs
• circular RNAs
• read-through transcription
• transcriptome
• RNA processing

Acknowledgments

I thank Giovanna Cavalcante, Leandro Magalhães and Ândrea Ribeiro-dos-Santos for helpful conversations. I also thank the Federal University of Pará and the Graduate Program of Genetics and Molecular Biology for the support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Rede de Pesquisa em Genômica Populacional Humana (Biocomputacional—Protocol no. 3381/2013/CAPES).