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Universality and flexibility in gene expression from bacteria to human
Hiroki R Ueda1, Satoko Hayashi, Shinichi Matsuyama
1Laboratory for Systems Biology, Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan. uedah-tky@umin.ac.jp
Summary
Gene expression changes across species, from bacteria to humans, follow a simple proportional principle. This "rich-travel-more" mechanism explains complex gene expression dynamics and transcriptome organization.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Systems Biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Large-scale gene expression analysis reveals complex and dynamic patterns.
- The underlying dynamics generating this complexity remain poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantitatively elucidate the dynamics of gene expression.
- To identify universal principles governing gene expression regulation.
Main Methods:
- Genome-wide gene expression analysis across diverse species: Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Arabidopsis thaliana, Drosophila melanogaster, Mus musculus, and Homo sapiens.
- Analysis of gene expression changes under various experimental conditions.
Main Results:
- Gene expression dynamics exhibit a universal principle across all studied species.
- Gene expression changes are proportional to their expression levels.
- This proportional dynamics ('rich-travel-more' mechanism) successfully regenerates observed transcriptome organization.
Conclusions:
- A simple, universal principle governs gene expression dynamics from bacteria to humans.
- Complex transcriptome organization emerges from simple underlying dynamics.
- Transcription demonstrates flexibility across a wide range of expression levels.