Measuring Absolute RNA Copy Numbers at High Temporal Resolution Reveals Transcriptome Kinetics in Development.

ABSTRACT: Transcript regulation is essential for cell function, and misregulation can lead to disease. Despite technologies to survey the transcriptome, we lack a comprehensive understanding of transcript kinetics, which limits quantitative biology. This is an acute challenge in embryonic development, where rapid changes in gene expression dictate cell fate decisions. By ultra-high-frequency sampling of Xenopus embryos and absolute normalization of sequence reads, we present smooth gene expression trajectories in absolute transcript numbers. During a developmental period approximating the first 8 weeks of human gestation, transcript kinetics vary by eight orders of magnitude. Ordering genes by expression dynamics, we find that "temporal synexpression" predicts common gene function. Remarkably, a sin

SUBMITTER: Owens NDL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731879 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature