Research Paper|Volume 7, Issue 11|pp 903—910

Circular RNAs in monkey muscle: age-dependent changes

Kotb Abdelmohsen¹, Amaresh C. Panda¹, Supriyo De¹, Ioannis Grammatikakis¹, Jiyoung Kim¹, Jun Ding¹, Ji Heon Noh¹, Kyoung Mi Kim¹, Julie A. Mattison², Rafael de Cabo², Myriam Gorospe¹

¹Laboratory of Genetics, National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA
²Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA

* * Equal contribution

Received: September 10, 2015Accepted: October 26, 2015Published: November 4, 2015

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100834

Copyright: © 2015 Abdelmohsen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified in numerous species, including human, mouse, nematode, and coelacanth. They are believed to function as regulators of gene expression at least in part by sponging microRNAs. Here, we describe the identification of circRNAs in monkey (Rhesus macaque) skeletal muscle. RNA sequencing analysis was employed to identify and annotate ∼12,000 circRNAs, including numerous circular intronic RNAs (ciRNAs), from skeletal muscle of monkeys of a range of ages. Reverse transcription followed by real-time quantitative (q)PCR analysis verified the presence of these circRNAs, including the existence of several highly abundant circRNAs, and the differential abundance of a subset of circRNAs as a function of age. Taken together, our study has documented systematically circRNAs expressed in skeletal muscle and has identified circRNAs differentially abundant with advancing muscle age. We propose that some of these circRNAs might influence muscle function.