PlantCircRNA: a comprehensive database for plant circular RNAs

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent recently discovered novel regulatory non-coding RNAs. While they are present in many eukaryotes, there has been limited research on plant circRNAs. We developed PlantCircRNA (https://plant.deepbiology.cn/PlantCircRNA/) to fill this gap. The two most important features of PlantCircRNA are (i) it incorporates circRNAs from 94 plant species based on 39 245 RNA-sequencing samples and (ii) it imports the original AtCircDB and CropCircDB databases. We manually curated all circRNAs from published articles, and imported them into the database. Furthermore, we added detailed information of tissue as well as abiotic stresses to the database. To help users understand these circRNAs, the database includes a detection score to measure their consistency and a naming system following the guidelines recently proposed for eukaryotes. Finally, we developed a comprehensive platform for users to visualize, analyze, and download data regarding specific circRNAs. This resource will serve as a home for plant circRNAs and provide the community with unprecedented insights into these mysterious molecule.