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Free keywords:
Animals
Brain/growth & development/*metabolism
Dendrites/*metabolism
Female
Hippocampus/metabolism
In Situ Hybridization
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Neuronal Plasticity/*physiology
Neuropil/*metabolism
Patch-Clamp Techniques
RNA/*metabolism
RNA, Circular
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Sequence Analysis, RNA
Synapses/*genetics
Abstract:
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have re-emerged as an interesting RNA species. Using deep RNA profiling in different mouse tissues, we observed that circRNAs were substantially enriched in brain and a disproportionate fraction of them were derived from host genes that encode synaptic proteins. Moreover, on the basis of separate profiling of the RNAs localized in neuronal cell bodies and neuropil, circRNAs were, on average, more enriched in the neuropil than their host gene mRNA isoforms. Using high-resolution in situ hybridization, we visualized circRNA punctae in the dendrites of neurons. Consistent with the idea that circRNAs might regulate synaptic function during development, many circRNAs changed their abundance abruptly at a time corresponding to synaptogenesis. In addition, following a homeostatic downscaling of neuronal activity many circRNAs exhibited substantial up- or downregulation. Together, our data indicate that brain circRNAs are positioned to respond to and regulate synaptic function.
