CircRNA may not be "circular"

Abstract

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel regulatory non-coding RNA and participates in diverse physiological and pathological processes. However, the structures and molecular mechanisms of circRNAs remain unclear. In this study, we took advantage of circRNA array and bioinformatics analysis and found lots of internal complementary base-pairing sequences (ICBPS) existed in plenty of circRNAs, especially in extremely long circRNAs (el-circRNAs, > 5,000 nt). The result indicated that circRNA may not be a simple circular structure. In addition, we put forward the hypothesis of "open-close effect " in the transition for specific circRNA from normal state to morbid state. Taken together, our results not only expand the knowledge of circRNAs, but also highlight the potential molecular mechanism of circRNAs.