Investigations of Circular RNAs in Plants

Dear Colleague,

Circular RNAs represent a family of single-stranded, endogenous, covalently closed circular RNAs lacking coding potential. Unlike the conventional linear RNAs, the circular structure of these RNAs makes them recalcitrant to RNA exonuclease degradation, suggesting vital functions. circRNAs are generated by the covalent circularization of a 3’ splice donor downstream and a 5’ splice acceptor upstream via backsplicing and are prevalent in eukaryotic cells. circRNAs have been classified as exonic (EcircRNAs), intergenic (circRNAs) and intronic (ciRNAs) based on the locations of their origins from chromosomes. In animals and humans, circRNAs perform critical roles in cellular processes, specifically in the regulation of gene expression, functioning as miRNA sponges, making R-loops, associating with RNA-binding proteins, enabling translation and alternate splicing. Nevertheless, the biological roles of circRNAs in plants are less comprehended, mainly due to the limited number of circRNAs identified using RNA seq technology. Initial studies detected circRNAs in rice and Arabidopsis, while more recent investigations have established their occurrence in various stages of development and in multiple species of plants. Further, plant circRNAs have been shown to respond to both biotic and abiotic environmental stimuli. circRNAs display a ubiquitous expression and abundance in plants. circRNA expression is often based on the type of cell, tissue and stage of development and is particularly inducible under stress conditions. Plant circRNAs have gathered increasing attention for their functions in gene regulation and stress responses. The widespread occurrence of circRNAs has recently been recognized in plants. Presently, 171118 circRNAs, belonging to 20 plant species, have been registered in PlantcircBase 7.0. Several research studies illustrate the major role of circRNAs in plant stress responses, plant growth and development, thus providing a basis for further research into their mechanisms. Previously, circRNAs were considered to be an inimitable class of non-coding RNAs. However, several studies in animal systems provide evidence for the coding ability of certain endogenous circRNAs. In contrast, the coding potential of plant circRNAs is much less explored.   

The current Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews on circRNA investigations in plants. In the future, understanding and elucidating the functions of circRNAs in plant development, stress responses and translation mechanisms by virtue of their non-coding/coding abilities would will be a major research topic. Further, the differences in the biogenesis of circRNAs between animals and plants would also be an intriguing research avenue. 

Dr. Srividhya Venkataraman
Guest Editor

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