Ribosome profiling reveals post-transcriptional buffering of divergent gene expression in yeast.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the patterns and causes of phenotypic divergence is a central goal in evolutionary biology. Much work has shown that mRNA abundance is highly variable between closely related species. However, the extent and mechanisms of post-transcriptional gene regulatory evolution are largely unknown. Here we used ribosome profiling to compare transcript abundance and translation efficiency in two closely related yeast species (S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus). By comparing translation regulatory divergence to interspecies differences in mRNA sequence features, we show that differences in transcript leaders and codon bias substantially contribute to divergent translation. Globally, we find that translation regulatory divergence often buffers species differences in mRNA abundance, such that

SUBMITTER: McManus CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3941107 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature