环状RNA研究进展

Research progress of circular RNAs

环状RNA(circular RNAs,circRNAs)是一类通过反向剪接(backsplice)方式形成的非编码RNA,因其剪接来源不同,主要分为外显子来源环状RNA(exonic circRNAs)和内含子来源环状RNA(ciRNAs).长期以来,由于环状RNA较低的表达量和科研条件的限制,相关研究较少.近年来,科研工作者借助高通量测序技术,结合其他现代分子生物学手段对其进行研究,取得了重要进展.目前已发现,环状RNA较线性RNA更加稳定,且有调控转录等作用.本文对环状RNA的研究历程、形成机制及一般特征、检测方法、功能等方面的最新研究进展进行了综述.

Circular RNAs（circRNAs）are one kind of non-coding RNA that produced by backsplice,they are divided into exonic circRNAs and ciRNAs by splicing resource.The expression level of circRNAs is very low,and difficult to isolate,so the related works are limited.In the past few years,the application of high-throughput sequencing technology together with molecular biology techniques has promoted significant progress in circRNAs.Recent experiments have made it apparent that circRNAs may be more stable than linear RNAs,and the evidence suggested that circular RNAs play different roles in regulating to transcription.This paper mainly reviewed the research history,formation mechanism,general features,detection methods and the latest functional research progress on circRNAs.