Annotation and functional clustering of circRNA expression in rhesus macaque brain during aging

Kaiyu Xu; Dong Chen; Zhengbo Wang; Jian Ma; Jian Zhou; Nanhui Chen; Longbao Lv; Yongtang Zheng; Xintian Hu; Yi Zhang; Jiali Li

doi:10.1038/s41421-018-0050-1

Annotation and functional clustering of circRNA expression in rhesus macaque brain during aging

Cell Discov. 2018 Sep 18:4:48. doi: 10.1038/s41421-018-0050-1. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Kaiyu Xu^#^{1

2}, Dong Chen^#³, Zhengbo Wang^#¹, Jian Ma¹, Jian Zhou³, Nanhui Chen¹, Longbao Lv^{1

4}, Yongtang Zheng^{1

4}, Xintian Hu^{1

4}, Yi Zhang^{3

5}, Jiali Li^{1

4

6}

Affiliations

¹ 1Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223 China.
² Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223 China.
³ Center for Genome Analysis, ABLife Inc., Wuhan, Hubei 430075 China.
⁴ 4CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223 China.
⁵ Laboratory for Genome Regulation and Human Health, ABLife Inc., Wuhan, Hubei 430075 China.
⁶ Kunming Primate Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The abundance and function of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in mammalian brain have been reported, but their alterations in the biology of brain aging remain elusive. Here, using deep RNA profiling with linear RNA digestion by RNase R we explored a comprehensive map of changes in circRNA expression in rhesus macaque (macaca mulatta) brain in two age groups from adult (10 y) to aged (20 y) periods. Total 17,050 well expressed, stable circRNAs were identified. Cluster analysis reveals that dynamic changes in circRNA expression show the spatial-, sex- and age-biased specificities. On the basis of separate profiling of the RNAs, age-related circRNAs show differential correlation to host mRNA expression. Furthermore, two voltage-dependent L- and R-type calcium channel gene-derived circCACNA2D1 and circCACNA1E negatively regulate their host mRNA expression. Our results demonstrate the power of changes in circRNA expression to reveal insights into a potentially circRNA-mediated regulatory mechanism underlying the biology of brain aging.