The minimal intrinsic stochasticity of constitutively expressed eukaryotic genes is sub-Poissonian.

ABSTRACT: Stochastic variation in gene products ("noise") is an inescapable by-product of gene expression. Noise must be minimized to allow for the reliable execution of cellular functions. However, noise cannot be suppressed beyond an intrinsic lower limit. For constitutively expressed genes, this limit is believed to be Poissonian, meaning that the variance in mRNA numbers cannot be lower than their mean. Here, we show that several cell division genes in fission yeast have mRNA variances significantly below this limit, which cannot be explained by the classical gene expression model for low-noise genes. Our analysis reveals that multiple steps in both transcription and mRNA degradation are essential to explain this sub-Poissonian variance. The sub-Poissonian regime differs qualitatively from previ

SUBMITTER: Weidemann DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10028819 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature