2017 Volume 57 Issue 1 Pages 005-010
In an E. coli cell-free translation system, we found that a circular RNA containing an infinite open reading frame produced more translation product than its linear counterpart by two orders of magnitude, because a ribosome can work more effectively towards the elongation on circular RNA than it can on linear RNA. We then tested circular RNAs containing an infinite open reading frame could be translated in eukaryotic systems, in the absence of any particular element for internal ribosome entry, a poly-A tail, or a cap structure. We found that the circular RNAs also produced long peptides in eukaryotic translation systems, possibly owing to the rolling circle amplification mechanism.
