An updated database of virus circular RNAs provides new insights into the biogenesis mechanism of the molecule

Virus circular RNAs (circRNA) have been reported to be extensively expressed and play important roles in viral infections. Previously we build the first database of virus circRNAs named VirusCircBase which has been widely used in the field. This study significantly improved the database on both the data quantity and database functionality: the number of virus circRNAs, virus species, host organisms was increased from 46440, 23, 9 to 60859, 43, 22, respectively, and 1902 full-length virus circRNAs were newly added; new functions were added such as visualization of the expression level of virus circRNAs and visualization of virus circRNAs in the Genome Browser. Analysis of the expression of virus circRNAs showed that they had low expression levels in most cells or tissues and showed strong expression heterogeneity. Analysis of the splicing of virus circRNAs showed that they used a much higher proportion of non-canonical back-splicing signals compared to those in animals and plants, and mainly used the A5SS (alternative 5’ splice site) in alternative-splicing. Most virus circRNAs have no more than two isoforms. Finally, human genes associated with the virus circRNA production were investigated and more than 1000 human genes exhibited moderate correlations with the expression of virus circRNAs. Most of them showed negative correlations including 42 genes encoding RNA-binding proteins. They were significantly enriched in biological processes related to cell cycle and RNA processing. Overall, the study provides a valuable resource for further studies of virus circRNAs and also provides new insights into the biogenesis mechanisms of virus circRNAs.