Exon Skipping Is Correlated with Exon Circularization.
Circular RNAs are found in a wide range of organisms and it has been proposed that they perform disparate functions. However, how RNA circularization is connected to alternative splicing remains largely unexplored. Here, we stimulated primary human endothelial cells with tumor necrosis factor α or tumor growth factor β, purified RNA, generated >2.4 billion RNA-seq reads, and used a custom pipeline to characterize circular RNAs derived from coding exons. We find that circularization of exons is widespread and correlates with exon skipping, a feature that adds considerably to the regulatory complexity of the human transcriptome.
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3RB Oxford, UK. Electronic address: steven.kelly@plants.ox.ac.uk.
Steven
S
Kelly
The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7UH Norwich, UK.
Chris
C
Greenman
Sir William Dunn of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3RE Oxford, UK.
Peter R
PR
Cook
Sir William Dunn of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3RE Oxford, UK; Center for Molecular Medicine, University of Cologne, Robert-Koch-Straße 21, D-50931 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: argyris.papantonis@uni-koeln.de.
Argyris
A
Papantonis
D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005091:Exons; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D012326:RNA Splicing / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000079962:RNA, Circular; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000494:pharmacology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000494:pharmacology
D000079962:RNA, Circular; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D012313:RNA
alternative splicing; circRNA; cotranscriptional; turnover