Characterization and Validation of Circular RNA and Their Host Gene mRNA Expression Using PCR.

Polymerase chain reaction enables the detection and characterization of circular RNA expression. The use of divergent primer pairs flanking the back-splice site, being the unique sequence element of a circular RNA, enables the detection of circular RNA expression. Here we describe the basic techniques to detect different circular transcripts of a gene or one circular RNA specifically by PCR and highlight the advantages and drawbacks of both.