scholarly journals Circular RNA Expression and Regulation Profiling in Testicular Tissues of Immature and Mature Wandong Cattle (Bos taurus)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrar Muhammad Khan ◽  
Hongyu Liu ◽  
Jingyi Zhuang ◽  
Nazir Muhammad Khan ◽  
Dandan Zhang ◽  
...  

Wandong cattle are an autochthonous Chinese breed used extensively for beef production. The breed tolerates extreme weather conditions and raw feed and is resistant to tick-borne diseases. However, the genetic basis of testis development and sperm production as well as breeding management is not well established in local cattle. Therefore, improving the reproductive efficiency of bulls via genetic selection is crucial as a single bull can breed thousands of cows through artificial insemination (AI). Testis development and spermatogenesis are regulated by hundreds of genes and transcriptomes. However, circular RNAs (circRNAs) are the key players in many biological developmental processes that have not been methodically described and compared between immature and mature stages in Bovine testes. In this study, we performed total RNA-seq and comprehensively analyzed the circRNA expression profiling of the testis samples of six bulls at 3 years and 3 months of developmental age. In total, 17,013 circRNAs were identified, of which 681 circRNAs (p-adjust < 0.05) were differentially expressed (DE). Among these DE circRNAs, 579 were upregulated and 103 were downregulated in calf and bull testes. The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses revealed that the identified target genes were classified into three broad functional categories, including biological process, cellular component, and molecular function, and were enriched in the lysine degradation, cell cycle, and cell adhesion molecule pathways. The binding interactions between DE circRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) were subsequently constructed using bioinformatics approaches. The source genes ATM, CCNA1, GSK3B, KMT2C, KMT2E, NSD2, SUCLG2, QKI, HOMER1, and SNAP91 were found to be actively associated with bull sexual maturity and spermatogenesis. In addition, a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis showed a strong correlation with the sequencing data. Moreover, the developed model of Bovine testes in the current study provides a suitable framework for understanding the mechanism of circRNAs in the development of testes and spermatogenesis.

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (13) ◽  
pp. 2326-2328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Jakobi ◽  
Alexey Uvarovskii ◽  
Christoph Dieterich

Abstract Motivation Circular RNAs (circRNAs) originate through back-splicing events from linear primary transcripts, are resistant to exonucleases, are not polyadenylated and have been shown to be highly specific for cell type and developmental stage. CircRNA detection starts from high-throughput sequencing data and is a multi-stage bioinformatics process yielding sets of potential circRNA candidates that require further analyses. While a number of tools for the prediction process already exist, publicly available analysis tools for further characterization are rare. Our work provides researchers with a harmonized workflow that covers different stages of in silico circRNA analyses, from prediction to first functional insights. Results Here, we present circtools, a modular, Python-based framework for computational circRNA analyses. The software includes modules for circRNA detection, internal sequence reconstruction, quality checking, statistical testing, screening for enrichment of RBP binding sites, differential exon RNase R resistance and circRNA-specific primer design. circtools supports researchers with visualization options and data export into commonly used formats. Availability and implementation circtools is available via https://github.com/dieterich-lab/circtools and http://circ.tools under GPLv3.0. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaomin Yang ◽  
Hong Zhou ◽  
Ruth Cruz-Cosme ◽  
Mingde Liu ◽  
Jiayu Xu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTCircular RNAs (circRNAs) encoded by DNA genomes have been identified across host and pathogen species as parts of the transcriptome. Accumulating evidences indicate that circRNAs play critical roles in autoimmune diseases and viral pathogenesis. Here we report that RNA viruses of the Betacoronavirus genus of Coronaviridae, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, encode a novel type of circRNAs. Through de novo circRNA analyses of publicly available coronavirus-infection related deep RNA-Sequencing data, we identified 351, 224 and 2,764 circRNAs derived from SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, respectively, and characterized two major back-splice events shared by these viruses. Coronavirus-derived circRNAs are more abundant and longer compared to host genome-derived circRNAs. Using a systematic strategy to amplify and identify back-splice junction sequences, we experimentally identified over 100 viral circRNAs from SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells. This collection of circRNAs provided the first line of evidence for the abundance and diversity of coronavirus-derived circRNAs and suggested possible mechanisms driving circRNA biogenesis from RNA genomes. Our findings highlight circRNAs as an important component of the coronavirus transcriptome.SummaryWe report for the first time that abundant and diverse circRNAs are generated by SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV and represent a novel type of circRNAs that differ from circRNAs encoded by DNA genomes.


Stroke ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zuo ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Juan Zu ◽  
Zan Wang ◽  
Bing Han ◽  
...  

Background and Purpose— Circular RNAs (CircRNAs) show promise as stroke biomarkers because of their participation in various pathophysiological processes associated with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and stability in peripheral blood. Methods— A circRNA microarray was used to identify differentially expressed circulating circRNAs in a discovery cohort (3 versus 3). Validation (36 versus 36) and replication (200 versus 100) were performed in independent cohorts by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Platelets, lymphocytes, and granulocytes were separated from blood to examine the origins of circRNAs. Results— There were 3 upregulated circRNAs in Chinese population–based AIS patients compared with healthy controls. The combination of 3 circRNAs resulted in an area under the curve of 0.875, corresponding to a specificity of 91% and a sensitivity of 71.5% in AIS diagnosis. Furthermore, the combination of change rate in 3 circRNAs within the first 7 days of treatment showed an area under the curve of 0.960 in predicting stroke outcome. There was significant increase in lymphocytes and granulocytes for circPDS5B (circular RNA PDS5B) and only in granulocytes for circCDC14A (circular RNA CDC14A) in AIS patients compared with healthy controls. Conclusions— Three circRNAs could serve as biomarkers for AIS diagnosis and prediction of stroke outcomes. The elevated levels of circPDS5B and circCDC14A after stroke might be because of increased levels in lymphocytes and granulocytes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Ke Ma ◽  
Steffie Pitts ◽  
Yulan Cheng ◽  
Xi Liu ◽  
...  

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new class of RNA involved in multiple human malignancies. However, limited information exists regarding the involvement of circRNAs in gastric carcinoma (GC). Therefore, we sought to identify novel circRNAs, their functions and mechanisms in gastric carcinogenesis. We analyzed next-generation RNA sequencing data from GC tissues and cell lines, identifying 75,201 candidate circRNAs. Among these, we focused on one novel circRNA, circNF1 , which was upregulated in GC tissues and cell lines. Loss- and gain-of-function studies demonstrated that circNF1 significantly promotes cell proliferation. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assays showed that circNF1 binds to miR-16, thereby derepressing its downstream target mRNAs, MAP7 and AKT3. Targeted silencing or overexpression of circNF1 had no effect on levels of its linear RNA counterpart, NF1. Taken together, these results suggest that circNF1 acts as a novel oncogenic circRNA in GC by functioning as a miR-16 sponge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dat Thanh Nguyen ◽  
Quang Thinh Trac ◽  
Thi-Hau Nguyen ◽  
Ha-Nam Nguyen ◽  
Nir Ohad ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Circular RNA (circRNA) is an emerging class of RNA molecules attracting researchers due to its potential for serving as markers for diagnosis, prognosis, or therapeutic targets of cancer, cardiovascular, and autoimmune diseases. Current methods for detection of circRNA from RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) focus mostly on improving mapping quality of reads supporting the back-splicing junction (BSJ) of a circRNA to eliminate false positives (FPs). We show that mapping information alone often cannot predict if a BSJ-supporting read is derived from a true circRNA or not, thus increasing the rate of FP circRNAs. Results We have developed Circall, a novel circRNA detection method from RNA-seq. Circall controls the FPs using a robust multidimensional local false discovery rate method based on the length and expression of circRNAs. It is computationally highly efficient by using a quasi-mapping algorithm for fast and accurate RNA read alignments. We applied Circall on two simulated datasets and three experimental datasets of human cell-lines. The results show that Circall achieves high sensitivity and precision in the simulated data. In the experimental datasets it performs well against current leading methods. Circall is also substantially faster than the other methods, particularly for large datasets. Conclusions With those better performances in the detection of circRNAs and in computational time, Circall facilitates the analyses of circRNAs in large numbers of samples. Circall is implemented in C++ and R, and available for use at https://www.meb.ki.se/sites/biostatwiki/circall and https://github.com/datngu/Circall.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 657
Author(s):  
Tianyi Xu ◽  
LiPing Wang ◽  
Peilin Jia ◽  
Xiaofeng Song ◽  
Zhongming Zhao

Recently, accumulating evidence has supported that circular RNA (circRNA) plays important roles in tumorigenesis by regulating gene expression at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Expression of circRNAs can be epigenetically silenced by DNA methylation; however, the underlying regulatory mechanisms of circRNAs by DNA methylation remains largely unknown. We explored this regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using genome-wide DNA methylation and RNA sequencing data of the primary tumor and matched adjacent normal tissues from 20 HCC patients. Our pipeline identified 1012 upregulated and 747 downregulated circRNAs (collectively referred to as differentially expressed circRNAs, or DE circRNAs) from HCC RNA-seq data. Among them, 329 DE circRNAs covered differentially methylated sites (adjusted p-value < 0.05, |ΔM| > 0.5) in circRNAs’ interior and/or flanking regions. Interestingly, the corresponding parental genes of 46 upregulated and 31 downregulated circRNAs did not show significant expression change in the HCC tumor versus normal samples. Importantly, 34 of the 77 DE circRNAs (44.2%) had significant correlation with DNA methylation change in HCC (Spearman’s rank-order correlation, p-value < 0.05), suggesting that aberrant DNA methylation might regulate circular RNA expression in HCC. Our study revealed genome-wide differential circRNA expression in HCC. The significant correlation with DNA methylation change suggested that epigenetic regulation might act on both mRNA and circRNA expression. The specific regulation in HCC and general view in other cancer or disease requires further investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijie Dong ◽  
Zhaoyu Liu ◽  
Min Liang ◽  
Jinhui Pan ◽  
Mingzhen Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new class of noncoding RNAs that have gained increased attention in human tumor research. However, the identification and function of circRNAs are largely unknown in the context of gastric cancer (GC). This study aims to identify novel circRNAs and determine their action networks in GC. Methods A comprehensive strategy of data mining, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and computational biology were conducted to discover novel circRNAs and to explore their potential mechanisms in GC. Promising therapeutic drugs for GC were determined by connectivity map (CMap) analysis. Results Six overlapped differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) were screened from selected microarray and RNA-Seq datasets of GC, and the six DECs were then validated by sanger sequencing and RNase R treatment. Subsequent RT-qPCR analysis of GC samples confirmed decreased expressions of the six DECs (hsa_circ_0000390, hsa_circ_0000615, hsa_circ_0001438, hsa_circ_0002190, hsa_circ_0002449 and hsa_circ_0003120), all of which accumulated preferentially in the cytoplasm. MiRNA binding sites and AGO2 occupation of the six circRNAs were predicted using online databases, and circRNA–miRNA interactions including the six circRNAs and 33 miRNAs were determined. Then, 5320 target genes of the above 33 miRNAs and 1492 differently expressed genes (DEGs) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were identified. After intersecting the miRNA target genes and the 889 downregulated DEGs, 320 overlapped target genes were acquired. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis indicated that these target genes were related to two critical tumor-associated signaling pathways. A protein–protein interaction network with the 320 target genes was constructed using STRING, and fifteen hubgenes (ATF3, BTG2, DUSP1, EGR1, FGF2, FOSB, GNAO1, GNAI1, GNAZ, GNG7, ITPR1, ITPKB, JUND, NR4A3, PRKCB) in the network were identified. Finally, bioactive chemicals (including vorinostat, trichostatin A and astemizole) based on the fifteen hubgenes were identifed as therapeutic agents for GC through the CMap analysis. Conclusions This study provides a novel insight for further exploration of the pathogenesis and therapy of GC from the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network perspective.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Line Hauge Okholm ◽  
Shashank Sathe ◽  
Samuel S. Park ◽  
Andreas Bjerregaard Kamstrup ◽  
Asta Mannstaedt Rasmussen ◽  
...  

AbstractCircular RNAs (circRNAs) are stable, often highly expressed RNA transcripts with potential to modulate other regulatory RNAs. A few circRNAs have been shown to bind RNA binding proteins (RBPs), however, little is known about the prevalence and strength of these interactions in different biological contexts. Here, we comprehensively evaluate the interplay between circRNAs and RBPs in the ENCODE cell lines, HepG2 and K562, by profiling the expression of circRNAs in fractionated total RNA-sequencing samples and analyzing binding sites of 150 RBPs in large eCLIP data sets. We show that KHSRP binding sites are enriched in flanking introns of circRNAs in both HepG2 and K562 cells, and that KHSRP depletion affects circRNA biogenesis. Additionally, we show that exons forming circRNAs are generally enriched with RBP binding sites compared to non-circularizing exons. To detect individual circRNAs with regulatory potency, we computationally identify circRNAs that are highly covered by RBP binding sites and experimentally validate circRNA-RBP interactions by RNA immunoprecipitations. We characterize circCDYL, a highly expressed circRNA with clinical and functional implications in bladder cancer, which is covered with GRWD1 binding sites. We confirm that circCDYL binds GRWD1 in vivo and functionally characterizes the effect of circCDYL-GRWD1 interactions on target genes in HepG2. Furthermore, we confirm interactions between circCDYL and RBPs in bladder cancer cells and demonstrate that circCDYL depletion affects hallmarks of cancer and perturbs the expression of key cancer genes, e.g. TP53 and MYC. Finally, we show that elevated levels of highly RBP-covered circRNAs, including circCDYL, are associated with overall survival of bladder cancer patients. Our study demonstrates transcriptome-wide and cell-type-specific circRNA-RBP interactions that could play important regulatory roles in tumorigenesis.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 626
Author(s):  
Ting Xue ◽  
Yiping Liu ◽  
Min Cao ◽  
Mengyu Tian ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
...  

Increasing evidence suggests that non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) play an important role in a variety of biological life processes by regulating gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) has been threatened by various pathogens. In this study, the expression of circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNA in the immune organs spleen of turbot infected with Aeromonas salmonicida was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing, and a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed, so as to explore the function of non-coding RNA in the immune system of teleost. Illumina sequencing was performed on the uninfected group and infected group. A total of 119 differential expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs), 140 DE-miRNAs, and 510 DE-mRNAs were identified in the four infected groups compared with the uninfected group. Most DE-mRNAs and the target genes of DE-ncRNAs were involved in immune-related pathways. The quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) results verified the reliability and accuracy of the high-throughput sequencing data. Ninety-six differentially expressed circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks were finally constructed. Among them, 15 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA were presented in the form of “up (circRNA)-down (miRNA)-up (mRNA)” or “down-up-down”. Immune-related genes gap junction CX32.2, cell adhesion molecule 3, and CC chemokine were also found in these networks. These results indicate that ncRNA may regulate the expression of immune-related genes through the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network and thus participate in the immune response of turbot spleen after pathogen infection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongbin Chi ◽  
Wenlong Zheng ◽  
Guangyu Bao ◽  
Lifeng Wu ◽  
Xiaoxue He ◽  
...  

AbstractA growing number of circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified and verified in several cancers. However, highly efficient therapeutic methods based on circRNAs in lung cancer remain largely unexplored. In the present study, we identified a novel circular RNA, hsa_circ_103820, based on Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data. Functionally, overexpression of hsa_circ_103820 showed significant inhibitory effects on the proliferation, migration and invasion of lung cancer cells, and knockdown of hsa_circ_103820 played promoting roles. Regarding the mechanism, we revealed that miR-200b-3p was a direct target of hsa_circ_103820 and that LATS2 and SOCS6 were the downstream target genes of miR-200b-3p. Therefore, we identified a novel potential tumor suppressive function of hsa_circ_103820 in lung cancer.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document