Regulation of cell-to-cell variability in divergent gene expression.

ABSTRACT: Cell-to-cell variability (noise) is an important feature of gene expression that impacts cell fitness and development. The regulatory mechanism of this variability is not fully understood. Here we investigate the effect on gene expression noise in divergent gene pairs (DGPs). We generated reporters driven by divergent promoters, rearranged their gene order, and probed their expressions using time-lapse fluorescence microscopy and single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH). We show that two genes in a co-regulated DGP have higher expression covariance compared with the separate, tandem and convergent configurations, and this higher covariance is caused by more synchronized firing of the divergent transcriptions. For differentially regulated DGPs, the regulatory signal of on

SUBMITTER: Yan C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4820839 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature