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Updated: Aug 8, 2025
08:25
Identification of Circular RNAs using RNA Sequencing
Published on: November 14, 2019
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A Circular RNA Expressed from the FAT3 Locus Regulates Neural Development
Sabine Seeler1,2, Maria Schertz Andersen1, Tamas Sztanka-Toth3
1Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Aarhus, Denmark.
Molecular Neurobiology
|February 25, 2023
Summary
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) regulate neural development. Depleting circFAT3 in human brain organoids and mouse models impaired neural cell development and positioning, suggesting a conserved role in brain formation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Molecular Biology
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are crucial for cellular processes and abundant in the nervous system.
- Their specific roles in brain development and neural differentiation remain largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the function of circRNAs, particularly circFAT3, during human neural progenitor cell differentiation and brain development.
- To elucidate the role of circFAT3 in neural cell differentiation, migration, and brain formation.
Main Methods:
- RNA-sequencing of differentiating human embryonic stem cells into neural progenitor cells (NPCs).
- Single-cell transcriptomics of cerebral organoids with and without circFAT3.
- In vivo electroporation in mouse prefrontal cortex to deplete circFat3.
Main Results:
- circRNA levels, including ciRS-7, circRMST, and circFAT3, increased during NPC differentiation.
- circFAT3 depletion in cerebral organoids led to loss of telencephalic radial glial cells and mature cortical neurons.
- circFAT3 depletion altered gene expression related to neural differentiation and migration, and affected cell positioning in the mouse neocortex.
Conclusions:
- circFAT3 plays a conserved role in neural development.
- circFAT3 is essential for the formation of anterior cell types, neuronal differentiation, and cell migration in the brain.
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