It is known that pre-mRNAs in eukaryotic cells can be processed to circular RNAs by a backsplicing mechanism. Circular RNAs have great stability and can sequester proteins or small RNAs to exert functions on cellular pathways. Because viruses often exploit host pathways, we explored whether the RNA genome of the cytoplasmic hepatitis C virus is processed to yield virus-derived circRNAs (vcircRNAs). Computational analyses of RNA-seq experiments predicted that the viral RNA genome is fragmented …