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Gene expression

Cataloging mammalian circular RNAs

Guo JU, Agarwal V, Guo H, et al. · Genome biology · 2014

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Thousands of mammalian circRNAs arise by back-splicing and can be quantified across ENCODE cell types.

Study at a glance

Design
Computational / modelling — Computational detection of back-splice junctions in non-poly(A) RNA-seq
N
Multi-sample circRNA discovery pipeline — no single primary analytic N in stored summary
Population
Mammalian non-poly(A) RNA-seq libraries
Outcome
Expanded catalogue and splice features of circular RNAs

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Key findings

Most confident circRNAs use canonical GT-AG splice signals; circular fractions vary by locus and cell type.

Methodology

Built a computational pipeline on non-poly(A) RNA-seq to detect back-splice junctions and circular fractions.

Limitations

Does not prove sponge function for most newly found circRNAs.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • Protocol choice decides which molecules even appear. A computational pipeline on non-poly(A) RNA-seq was required to catalogue mammalian circular RNAs via back-splice junctions; most confident circRNAs used canonical GT-AG splice signals, and circular fractions varied by locus and cell type. A standard poly(A) mRNA-seq experiment would have missed them.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • Reference-guided counting and de novo assembly are not interchangeable products. CircRNA detection needed non-poly(A) libraries and back-splice calling; Aloe and sea bass papers assemble transcripts because a complete reference is missing or incomplete; LCL and tomato papers quantify against known genes. Treating every RNA-seq paper as a gene-count table hides those design choices.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Open questions

Tensions this paper is part of

From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.

  • Scope difference — different assays, populations, or outcomes

    Reference-guided counting and de novo assembly are not interchangeable products. CircRNA detection needed non-poly(A) libraries and back-splice calling; Aloe and sea bass papers assemble transcripts because a complete reference is missing or incomplete; LCL and tomato papers quantify against known genes. Treating every RNA-seq paper as a gene-count table hides those design choices.

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Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.