virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
Patrick Moore returns to TWiV to discuss the discovery from the Chang-Moore laboratory of circular RNAs in cells infected with herpesviruses.
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
The diversity of cellular RNA structure and function has progressed from the early days of molecular biology, when we thought only about mRNA, tRNA and ribosomal RNAs. Then RNA splicing was discovered along with the many small nuclear RNAs that mediate that process. Next came small interfering RNAs and microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs, master regulators of cell processes. The latest addition to the RNA toolbox are circular RNAs (circRNA), first found in viroids, then cells, and now encoded in the genomes of two herpesviruses.