Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Real-time Analysis of Transcription Factor Binding, Transcription, Translation, and Turnover to Display Global Events During Cellular Activation
Published on: March 7, 2018
Estimation of ribosomal RNA transcription rate in situ
1University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Abstract:
Traditionally, the rate of transcription is measured by metabolic labeling (e.g., the run-on assay), which can be carried out only in isolated or cultured cells. It has been difficult if not impossible to assess the rate of transcription of a gene in a specific cell type in situ. We show here that the quantity of 47S precursor ribosomal RNA (pre-rRNA), which correlates positively with the rate of rRNA transcription as measured by the run-on assay, can serve as an indicator for the rate of its transcription. We adopted this method as an in situ hybridization procedure to demonstrate its validity in vivo. The notion of using the quantity of the primary transcript as an indicator of the rate of transcription has the potential application in monitoring the rate of messenger RNA transcription in single cells within a tissue of complex cellular composition.
Related Concept Videos
Ribosome Profiling
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique helps...
Ribosomal RNA Synthesis
Ribosome biogenesis begins with the synthesis of 5S and 45S pre-rRNAs by distinct RNA polymerases. The primary transcripts are extensively processed and modified before they are bound and folded by ribosomal proteins and assembly factors,...
Real Time RT-PCR
The real-time quantification of the number of amplified products is...
Bacterial RNA Polymerase
In most genes, the transcription site is a single base present upstream of the coding sequence. Though RNAP is a catalytically efficient enzyme, it does not recognize...
In-situ Hybridization
Types of probes and labels
A probe is a complementary strand of DNA or RNA that binds to corresponding nucleotide sequences in a cell. Many...

