A Guide to Naming Eukaryotic Circular RNAs

Authors

Ling-Ling Chen
Albrecht Bindereif
Irene Bozzoni
Howard Y Chang
A Gregory Matera
Myriam Gorospe
Thomas B Hansen
Jørgen Kjems
Xu-Kai Ma
Jun Wei Pek
Nikolaus Rajewsky
Julia Salzman
Jeremy E Wilusz
Li Yang
Fangqing Zhao

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Journal

Nature Cell Biology

DOI

10.1038/s41556-022-01066-9

PMID

36658223

PMCID

PMC10114414

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

1-1-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

RNA, Circular, Eukaryota, RNA, Eukaryotic Cells, Alternative splicing, back-splicing, back-splice junction, circRNA, ciRNA, nomenclature

Abstract

Alternative splicing of eukaryotic transcripts often leads to production of multiple mature RNAs from a single gene locus. In addition to encoding linear RNAs, genes can produce stable circular RNAs (circRNAs) that are often co-expressed with their cognate linear RNAs. Multiple distinct circRNAs are frequently generated from a gene locus via back-splicing, with each mature transcript having a potentially unique function due to its distinct combination of exons and sometimes retained introns. However, names currently given to circRNAs are often ambiguous and lack consistency across studies. Here, we call on the community to embrace standards for naming circRNAs so that a common nomenclature is used to ensure clarity and reproducibility.