Investigating Mitochondrial Transcriptomes and RNA Processing Using Circular RNA Sequencing

Transcriptomic technologies have revolutionized the study of gene expression and RNA biology. Different RNA sequencing methods enable the analyses of diverse species of transcripts, including their abundance, processing, stability, and other specific features. Mitochondrial transcriptomics has benefited from these technologies that have revealed the surprising complexity of its RNAs. Here we describe a method based upon cyclization of mitochondrial RNAs and next generation sequencing to analyze the steady-state levels and sizes of mitochondrial RNAs, their degradation products, as well as their processing intermediates by capturing both 5′ and 3′ ends of transcripts.