Recent studies have demonstrated that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are ubiquitous and have diverse functions and mechanisms of biogenesis. In these studies, computational profiling of circRNAs has been prevalently used as an indispensable method to provide high-throughput approaches to detect and analyze circRNAs. However, without an overall understanding of the underlying strategies, these computational methods may not be appropriately selected or used for a specific research purpose, and some misconceptions may result in biases in the analyses. In this review we attempt to illustrate the key steps and summarize tradeoff of different strategies, covering all popular algorithms for circRNA detection and various downstream analyses. We also clarify some common misconceptions and put emphasis on the fields of application for these computational methods.

最近的研究表明，环状RNA（circRNA）普遍存在，并且具有多种生物发生的功能和机制。在这些研究中，circRNA的计算分析已普遍用作提供高通量方法来检测和分析circRNA的必不可少的方法。然而，在没有底层策略的总体理解，这些计算方法可能无法适当地选择或用于特定研究目的，以及一些误解可能导致在分析中的偏差。在这篇综述中，我们尝试说明关键步骤并总结不同策略的权衡，涵盖所有用于circRNA检测的流行算法和各种下游分析。我们还澄清了一些常见的误解，并重点介绍了这些计算方法的应用领域。