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Updated: Apr 29, 2026

A Reporter Based Cellular Assay for Monitoring Splicing Efficiency
Published on: September 15, 2021
A view of pre-mRNA splicing from RNase R resistant RNAs
Hitoshi Suzuki1, Toshifumi Tsukahara2
1Center for Nano Materials and Technology, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan. suzuki-h@jaist.ac.jp.
Abstract:
During pre-mRNA splicing, exons in the primary transcript are precisely connected to generate an mRNA. Intron lariat RNAs are formed as by-products of this process. In addition, some exonic circular RNAs (circRNAs) may also result from exon skipping as by-products. Lariat RNAs and circRNAs are both RNase R resistant RNAs. RNase R is a strong 3' to 5' exoribonuclease, which efficiently degrades linear RNAs, such as mRNAs and rRNAs; therefore, the circular parts of lariat RNAs and the circRNAs can be segregated from eukaryotic total RNAs by their RNase R resistance. Thus, RNase R resistant RNAs could provide unexplored splicing information not available from mRNAs. Analyses of these RNAs identified repeating splicing phenomena, such as re-splicing of mature mRNAs and nested splicing. Moreover, circRNA might function as microRNA sponges. There is an enormous variety of endogenous circRNAs, which are generally synthesized in cells and tissues.
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