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Analysis of human ES cell differentiation establishes that the dominant isoforms of the lncRNAs RMST and FIRRE are circular

ABSTRACT: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are numerically abundant in human, predominantly derived from protein coding genes, and some can act as microRNA sponges or cis-acting transcriptional regulators. Changes in circRNA abundance have been identified during human development which may be functionally important, but lineage-specific analyses are currently lacking. To address this, we performed RNAseq analysis of human embryonic stem (ES) cells differentiated for 90 days towards 3D laminated retina. A transcriptome-wide increase in circRNA abundance, size, and exon count was observed which reached a plateau by day 45. Parallel analyses, controlling for sample and locus specific effects, identified 239 circRNAs with expression patterns distinct from the transcriptome-wide pattern, but these also increased in abundance over time. Surprisingly, circRNAs derived from long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were found to account for a significantly larger proportion of transcripts from their loci of origin than circRNAs from coding genes. The most abundant, circRMST:E12-E6, showed a >100X increase during differentiation which was associated with altered promoter usage, and accounts for >99% of RMST transcripts in many adult tissues. The second most abundant, circFIRRE:E10-E5, accounts for >98% of FIRRE transcripts in differentiating human ES cells, and is one of 39 FIRRE circRNAs many of which include multiple unannotated exons. Our results suggest that during human ES cell differentiation, changes in circRNA abundance are primarily globally controlled. They also suggest that RMST and FIRRE, genes with established roles in neurogenesis and topological organisation of chromosomal domains respectively, encode circular lncRNAs with only minor linear species.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE89957 | GEO | 2018/03/28

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:In platelets, splicing and translation occur in the absence of a nucleus. However, the integrity and stability of mRNAs derived from megakaryocyte progenitor cells remain poorly quantified on a transcriptome-wide level. As circular RNAs (circRNAs) are resistant to degradation by exonucleases, their abundance relative to linear RNAs can be used as a surrogate marker for mRNA stability in the absence of transcription. Here we show that circRNAs are enriched in human platelets 17-188 fold relative to nucleated tissues, and 14-26 fold relative to samples digested with RNAseR to selectively remove linear RNA. We compare RNAseq read depths inside and outside circRNAs to provide in silico evidence of transcript circularity, show that exons within circRNAs are enriched ~13X in platelets relative to nucleated tissues, and identify 3162 genes significantly enriched for circRNAs including some where all RNAs appear to be derived from circular molecules. We also confirm that this is a feature of other anucleate cells through transcriptome sequencing of mature erythrocytes, demonstrate that circRNAs are not enriched in megakaryocytes, and that linear RNAs decay more rapidly than circRNAs in platelet preparations. Collectively, these results suggest that circulating platelets have lost on aveage over 90% of their progenitor mRNAs, and that translation in platelets occurrs against the backdrop of a highly degraded transcriptome. Finally, we find that transcripts classified as products of reverse transcriptase template switching are both enriched in platelets and resistant to decay, countering the recent suggestion that up to 50% of rearranged RNAs are artefacts. A single rRNA depleted total RNA sample was sequenced. This together with 25 publicly available rRNA depleted total RNA samples (including 3 from platelets) were analysed using PTESFinder v 1 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ptesfinder-v1/) to identify back-splice junctions, characteristic of circRNA transcripts. The contribution of circRNA producing exons was analysed on a gene by gene basis as follows: All circRNA transcripts identified in any sample were first pooled to define exons which can contribute to circRNA generation using custom scripts (available on request). For each sample, expression estimates (RPKMI) across all circRNA producing exons were computed for each locus using the total size of exons (in bp) and the read counts mapping to them. Similarly, total size and exonic read counts for exons for which no circRNA were detected in any sample were used to compute expression estimates (RPKME) for non-circRNA producing exons for each locus. Abundance ratios (RPKMI/RPKME and RPKMI/RPKMI+RPKME) were calculated and compared between Platelets and human tissues using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Please note that the '25sample_info_accn_no.txt' contains the accession numbers and tissue/cell type information for 25 samples analyzed together.

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Analysis of human ES cell differentiation establishes that the dominant isoforms of the lncRNAs RMST and FIRRE are circular

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