Computational approaches for circRNAs prediction and in silico characterization

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are single-stranded and covalently closed non-coding RNA molecules originated from RNA splicing. Their functions include regulatory potential over other RNA species, such as microRNAs, messenger RNAs and RNA binding proteins. For circRNA identification, several algorithms are available and can be classified in two major types: pseudo-reference-based and split-alignment-based approaches. In general, the data generated from circRNA transcriptome initiatives is deposited on public specific databases, which provide a large amount of information on different species and functional annotations. In this review, we describe the main computational resources for the identification and characterization of circRNAs, covering the algorithms and predictive tools to evaluate its potential role in a particular transcriptomics project, including the public repositories containing relevant data and information for circRNAs, recapitulating their characteristics, reliability and amount of data reported.