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Updated: May 25, 2026

Identification of Circular RNAs using RNA Sequencing
Published on: November 14, 2019
Circular RNAs are the predominant transcript isoform from hundreds of human genes in diverse cell types
Julia Salzman1, Charles Gawad, Peter Lincoln Wang
1Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America.
Abstract:
Most human pre-mRNAs are spliced into linear molecules that retain the exon order defined by the genomic sequence. By deep sequencing of RNA from a variety of normal and malignant human cells, we found RNA transcripts from many human genes in which the exons were arranged in a non-canonical order. Statistical estimates and biochemical assays provided strong evidence that a substantial fraction of the spliced transcripts from hundreds of genes are circular RNAs. Our results suggest that a non-canonical mode of RNA splicing, resulting in a circular RNA isoform, is a general feature of the gene expression program in human cells.
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