An observation of circular RNAs in bacterial RNA-seq data

TL;DR

This study identifies and analyzes circular RNAs in bacterial RNA-seq data, demonstrating their reproducibility across different experiments and conditions, which suggests a potential functional role in bacteria.

Contribution

The paper is the first to report the presence of circRNAs in bacterial RNA-seq data, expanding their known biological relevance beyond eukaryotes.

Findings

Reproducible detection of circRNAs in Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli

CircRNAs observed across multiple experiments and protocols

Indication of potential functional roles of bacterial circRNAs

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of RNA with an important role in micro RNA (miRNA) regulation recently discovered in Human and various other eukaryotes as well as in archaea. Here, we have analyzed RNA-seq data obtained from {\it Enterococcus faecalis} and {\it Escherichia coli} in a way similar to previous studies performed on eukaryotes. We report observations of circRNAs in RNA-seq data that are reproducible across multiple experiments performed with different protocols or growth conditions.