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Functional Analysis of Circular RNAs

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Circular RNAs

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1087))

Abstract

Circular RNAs characterize a class of widespread and diverse endogenous RNAs which are non-coding RNAs that are made by back-splicing events and have covalently closed loops with no polyadenylated tails. Various indications specify that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are plentiful in the human transcriptome. However, their participation in biological processes remains mostly undescribed. To date thousands of circRNAs have been revealed in organisms ranging from Drosophila melanogaster to Homo sapiens. Functional studies specify that these transcripts control expression of protein-coding linear transcripts and thus encompass a key component of gene expression regulation. This chapter provide a comprehensive overview on functional validation of circRNAs. Furthermore, we discuss the recent modern methodologies for the functional validation of circRNAs such as RNA interference (RNAi) gene silencing assay, luciferase reporter assays, circRNA gain-of-function investigation via overexpression of circular transcript assay, RT-q-PCR quantification, and other latest applicable assays. The methods described in this chapter are demonstrated on the cellular model.

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Acknowledgements

Shanmugapriya was supported by the Graduate Research Assistance Scheme from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.

Competing Financial Interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Shanmugapriya, Hisham Alkatib Huda, Soundararajan Vijayarathna, Chern Ein Oon & Sreenivasan Sasidharan

  2. Faculty of Dentistry, Dental Research & Training Unit, and Oral Cancer Research and Coordinating Centre (OCRCC), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Yeng Chen

  3. Faculty of Health, Nanomedicine-Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Biomedical Research (LIMBR), School of Medicine (SoM), Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Jagat R. Kanwar

  4. Integrative Medicine Cluster, Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Mei Li Ng

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  1. Shanmugapriya
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  2. Hisham Alkatib Huda
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

    Junjie Xiao

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Shanmugapriya et al. (2018). Functional Analysis of Circular RNAs. In: Xiao, J. (eds) Circular RNAs. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1087. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1426-1_8

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