Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway
We explored how transcriptional noise propagates in gene‐regulatory pathways by studying the induction of two downstream genes by transcription factors c‐fos and c‐jun. They are produced for a brief period following serum stimulation of cells and then activate the promoters of their target genes by...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2013-01-01
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Series: | Molecular Systems Biology |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.45 |
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author | Khyati Shah Sanjay Tyagi |
author_facet | Khyati Shah Sanjay Tyagi |
author_sort | Khyati Shah |
collection | DOAJ |
description | We explored how transcriptional noise propagates in gene‐regulatory pathways by studying the induction of two downstream genes by transcription factors c‐fos and c‐jun. They are produced for a brief period following serum stimulation of cells and then activate the promoters of their target genes by binding to them as heterodimers. We found that, even though they are coordinately expressed at the population level, in individual cells the expression of c‐fos and c‐jun is noisy and uncorrelated with each other. The expression of the downstream genes is also noisy, but there is little or no effect of the noise in the upstream genes on the expression of the downstream genes. The noise is not transmitted, because the number of heterodimers present in single cells is relatively invariant, and the induction of downstream genes is insensitive to the number of heterodimers in individual cells. Sequestration of promoters of the downstream genes within compact chromatin is a likely cause of this insensitivity. These barriers to the propagation and amplification of noise are likely to be commonplace in higher eukaryotes. |
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id | doaj.art-83f85c8be42a45d5906a09f372a427f9 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1744-4292 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-07T16:44:24Z |
publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
publisher | Springer Nature |
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series | Molecular Systems Biology |
spelling | doaj.art-83f85c8be42a45d5906a09f372a427f92024-03-03T07:10:49ZengSpringer NatureMolecular Systems Biology1744-42922013-01-0191n/an/a10.1038/msb.2013.45Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathwayKhyati Shah0Sanjay Tyagi1Public Health Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University Newark NJ USAPublic Health Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University Newark NJ USAWe explored how transcriptional noise propagates in gene‐regulatory pathways by studying the induction of two downstream genes by transcription factors c‐fos and c‐jun. They are produced for a brief period following serum stimulation of cells and then activate the promoters of their target genes by binding to them as heterodimers. We found that, even though they are coordinately expressed at the population level, in individual cells the expression of c‐fos and c‐jun is noisy and uncorrelated with each other. The expression of the downstream genes is also noisy, but there is little or no effect of the noise in the upstream genes on the expression of the downstream genes. The noise is not transmitted, because the number of heterodimers present in single cells is relatively invariant, and the induction of downstream genes is insensitive to the number of heterodimers in individual cells. Sequestration of promoters of the downstream genes within compact chromatin is a likely cause of this insensitivity. These barriers to the propagation and amplification of noise are likely to be commonplace in higher eukaryotes.https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.45cellular heterogeneitynoise in gene expressiontranscription |
spellingShingle | Khyati Shah Sanjay Tyagi Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway Molecular Systems Biology cellular heterogeneity noise in gene expression transcription |
title | Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway |
title_full | Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway |
title_fullStr | Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway |
title_full_unstemmed | Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway |
title_short | Barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c‐fos c‐jun pathway |
title_sort | barriers to transmission of transcriptional noise in a c fos c jun pathway |
topic | cellular heterogeneity noise in gene expression transcription |
url | https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.45 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT khyatishah barrierstotransmissionoftranscriptionalnoiseinacfoscjunpathway AT sanjaytyagi barrierstotransmissionoftranscriptionalnoiseinacfoscjunpathway |