Sensitive detection of circular DNA at single-nucleotide resolution using guided realignment of partially aligned reads

Circular DNA has recently been identified across different species including human normal and cancerous tissue, but short-read mappers are unable to align many of the reads crossing circle junctions and hence limits their detection from short-read sequencing data. Here, we propose a new method, Circle-Map, that guides the realignment of partially aligned reads using information from discordantly mapped reads. We demonstrate how this approach dramatically increases sensitivity for detection of circular DNA on both simulated and real data while retaining high precision.