Antisense Oligonucleotide Technology Can Be Used to Investigate a Circular but Not Linear RNA-mediated Function for Its Encoded Gene Locus

Overview

Journal Sci China Life Sci

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2020 Aug 21

PMID 32815066

Citations 11

Authors

Zhenxing Song

Ruirui Jia

Mingfeng Tang

Fei Xia

Haiyang Xu

Zhengguo Li

Chuan Huang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

As a class of powerful molecular tool, antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are not only broadly used in protein and RNA biology, but also a highly selective therapeutic strategy for many diseases. Although the concept that ASO reagents only reduce expression of the targeted gene in a post-transcriptional manner has long been established, the effect and mechanism of ASO reagents on RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription are largely unknown. This raised question is particularly important for the appropriate use of ASOs and the valid interpretation of ASO-mediated experiments. In this study, our results show that linear RNA ASO attenuates transcription of nascent transcripts by inducing premature transcription termination which is combinatorially controlled by Integrator, exosome, and Rat1 in Drosophila. However, circular RNA (circRNA) ASO transfection does not affect transcription activity of the encoded gene. These data suggest that the ASO technique can be applied to study a circRNA-mediated but not linear RNA-mediated function for its encoded gene locus.

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