Circular RNA (CircRNA), a type of endogenous non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), is generally generated from precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) by canonical splicing and head-to-tail back splicing. The structure without a polyA tail renders circRNA highly insensitive to ribonuclease. Simultaneously, the distribution of circRNAs is tissue and developmental stage-specific. There are five potential biological functions of circRNAs: 1) promote transcription of their parental genes; 2) function as a miRNA sponge; 3) RNA binding protein (RBP) sponge; 4) encode protein; 5) act as an mRNA trap. Recently, circRNA has attracted attention because studies have shown that circRNAs are associated with follicular development, ovarian senescence, spermatogenesis, and germ cell development process, suggesting that circRNAs may function in germ cells regulation. The investigation of circRNAs in germ cells will provide an excellent opportunity to understand its potential molecular basis, and potentially improving reproduction status in human. In this article, the relationship between circRNA and germ cell development will be discussed.

中文翻译：

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cirRNA在生殖细胞发育中的作用。

环状RNA（CircRNA）是一种内源性非编码RNA（ncRNA），通常是通过规范剪接和头对尾反向剪接从前体mRNA（pre-mRNA）生成的。没有polyA尾巴的结构使circRNA对核糖核酸酶高度不敏感。同时，circRNA的分布是组织和发育阶段特异性的。circRNA具有五种潜在的生物学功能：1）促进其亲本基因的转录；2）用作miRNA海绵；3）RNA结合蛋白（RBP）海绵；4）编码蛋白质；5）充当mRNA陷阱。最近，由于研究表明circRNA与卵泡发育，卵巢衰老，精子发生和生殖细胞发育过程有关，因此circRNA已引起人们的关注，这表明circRNA可能在生殖细胞调节中起作用。对生殖细胞中circRNA的研究将提供一个极好的机会，以了解其潜在的分子基础，并有可能改善人类的生殖状态。在本文中，将讨论circRNA与生殖细胞发育之间的关系。