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. 2021 Sep 9;8:693641. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.693641

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Copyright © 2021 Cao, Wang, Ge, Zhang, Huang and Sun.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Overview of our current understanding of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) functions. High copy number and significant transcriptional activity of eccDNAs lead to the overexpression of the inhabiting genes. Additionally, eccDNAs could serve as mobile enhancers to trans-regulate chromosomal genes. eccDNAs have been associated with cancer prognosis, drug resistance of plants, and phenotypic variations of animals, implying their potential implications in life science. MicroDNA can be released from normal tissues. Establishing the associations of microDNA copy numbers with economic traits is an important direction for future exploration.