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Don't go in circles: confounding factors in gene expression profiling
Author(s) -
Toubia John,
Conn Vanessa M,
Conn Simon J
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.15252/embj.201797945
Subject(s) - public health , library science , northern territory , biology , medicine , pathology , sociology , ethnology , computer science
Quantification of gene expression is a crucial research tool in the life sciences, which makes it important to identify any factors that could compromise its accuracy. One of these factors are non‐polyadenylated (poly(A) − ) transcripts, including circular RNAs (circRNAs) that can skew quantification of gene expression as they resemble messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Here, we highlight the impact circRNAs and other poly(A) − transcripts have on gene expression profiling and the biological conclusions drawn from such experiments. We also propose easily adoptable strategies to increase the accuracy of gene expression quantification.