1 research outputs found
Exposure to Ionizing Radiation Triggers Prolonged Changes in Circular RNA Abundance in the Embryonic Mouse Brain and Primary Neurons
The exposure of mouse embryos in utero and primary cortical neurons to ionizing radiation
results in the P53-dependent activation of a subset of genes that is highly induced during brain
development and neuronal maturation, a feature that these genes reportedly share with circular
RNAs (circRNAs). Interestingly, some of these genes are predicted to express circular transcripts.
In this study, we validated the abundance of the circular transcript variants of four P53 target
genes (Pvt1, Ano3, Sec14l5, and Rnf169). These circular variants were overall more stable than
their linear counterparts. They were furthermore highly enriched in the brain and their transcript
levels continuously increase during subsequent developmental stages (from embryonic day 12 until
adulthood), while no further increase could be observed for linear mRNAs beyond post-natal day
30. Finally, whereas radiation-induced expression of P53 target mRNAs peaks early after exposure,
several of the circRNAs showed prolonged induction in irradiated embryonic mouse brain, primary
mouse cortical neurons, and mouse blood. Together, our results indicate that the circRNAs from these
P53 target genes are induced in response to radiation and they corroborate the findings that circRNAs
may represent bioma