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Gene expression

Dynamic omics responses

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 13, page 828 (2012)Cite this article

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Marguerat et al. used high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and mass spectrometry to characterize absolute molecule numbers across the transcriptome and proteome. In cycling Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells, most genes were expressed at both the mRNA and protein levels, but most RNAs were found at a low abundance (with a median of 2.4 mRNA copies per cell). Importantly, the authors found that low-abundance mRNAs can still be functionally relevant, as the vast majority of mRNAs present at ≥1 copy per cell were translated into detectable proteins. However, such a low abundance might make the presence or absence of these RNAs among cells highly susceptible to stochastic fluctuations in expression. Proteins were more abundant: a median of 3,919 copies of each protein was present per cell.

Globally, the levels of mRNAs and their corresponding proteins showed limited correlation (R2 = 0.55 in cycling cells), indicating that although transcriptomic analyses can broadly reflect the resultant proteomes, translation provides an important layer of amplification and regulation.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Marguerat, S. et al. Quantitative analysis of fission yeast transcriptomes and proteomes in proliferating and quiescent cells. Cell 151, 671–683 (2012)

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  1. Darren J. Burgess
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Burgess, D. Dynamic omics responses. Nat Rev Genet 13, 828 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3370

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