Profile analysis of circRNAs induced by porcine endemic diarrhea virus infection in porcine intestinal epithelial cells

The circRNA is a newly defined noncoding RNA and characterized by its unique splicing reactions to form circles. However, the function of circRNAs during viral infection remains largely unknown. In this study, the circRNA expression profile during porcine endemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infection in IPEC-J2 cell line was investigated using the next-generation sequencing technology. A total of 26670 circRNA candidates were identified. The functional annotation analysis revealed that the parent genes of differentially expressed circRNAs might be associated with host response to PEDV infection. Further analysis verified the existence of eight selected circRNAs and confirmed that PEDV infection alerted the expression patterns of circRNAs and their linear parent genes in IPEC-J2 cell line. The circRNA-miRNA interaction network was also constructed to elucidate their potential targets. Our results provided not only the first large-scale profile analysis of circRNAs associated with PEDV infection but also a novel direction to elucidate host-PEDV interactions.