Circular RNA Detection in the Transcriptomes of Various Species

Circular RNAs are an abundant class of naturally occuring RNAs that can impinge on post-transcriptional gene regulation by impeding miRNA activity through various miRNA target sites combined with strong miRNA binding capacity (Hansen TB, et. Al. 2013, Memczak S, et al 2013). In addition circRNA molecules have been implicated in translational inhibition and nuclear export/import. Here, we investigate their presence across a wide range of species and check for tissue/developmental-stage specificity in their expression. We examine for circRNA candidates using a robust pipeline combing the recently developed method by Memczak and colleagues (Memczak S, et al 2013) and chimeric alignments of STAR. Building robust detection methods for circRNAs is an important step for further analysis relating to their functional role in gene regulation.