Extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) derived from chromosomal Ty 
retrotransposons in yeast can be generated in multiple ways. Ty eccDNA can arise 
from the circularization of extrachromosomal linear DNA during the 
transpositional life cycle of retrotransposons, or from circularization of 
genomic Ty DNA. Circularization may happen through nonhomologous end-joining 
(NHEJ) of long terminal repeats (LTRs) flanking Ty elements, by Ty 
autointegration, or by LTR-LTR recombination. By performing an in-depth 
investigation of sequence reads stemming from Ty eccDNAs obtained from 
populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c, we find that eccDNAs 
predominantly correspond to full-length Ty1 elements. Analyses of sequence 
junctions reveal no signs of NHEJ or autointegration events. We detect 
recombination junctions that are consistent with yeast Ty eccDNAs being 
generated through recombination events within the genome. This opens the 
possibility that retrotransposable elements could move around in the genome 
without an RNA intermediate directly through DNA circularization.