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ceRNA crosstalk stabilizes protein expression and affects the correlation pattern of interacting proteins
Araks Martirosyan1, Andrea De Martino2,3,4, Andrea Pagnani3,5
1Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Scientific Reports
|March 8, 2017
Summary
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) buffer gene expression noise, stabilizing protein levels across all expression rates. This miRNA-mediated crosstalk also alters correlations between interacting proteins, offering a signature for RNA crosstalk.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Systems Biology
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Gene expression exhibits inherent noise, influenced by transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms.
- MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to buffer expression noise, particularly for lowly expressed genes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the broader influence of miRNAs on protein levels through competition-induced mRNA crosstalk.
- To determine if miRNA-mediated crosstalk stabilizes protein levels across diverse expression rates.
- To analyze how miRNA crosstalk affects correlation patterns of co-regulated interacting proteins.
Main Methods:
- In silico simulations were employed to model gene expression dynamics.
- Mathematical modeling was utilized to analyze miRNA-mediated regulatory networks.
- Analysis focused on protein level stability and correlation patterns under varying conditions.
Main Results:
- miRNA-mediated crosstalk stabilizes protein levels across the entire spectrum of gene expression rates.
- This crosstalk mechanism alters the correlation patterns of co-regulated interacting proteins.
- Negative correlations between interacting proteins were observed to shift towards positive correlations.
Conclusions:
- miRNAs exert a significant influence on protein level stability beyond buffering lowly expressed genes.
- Competition-induced mRNA crosstalk orchestrated by miRNAs is a key regulatory mechanism.
- The shift in correlation patterns serves as a potential signature for endogenous miRNA-mediated RNA crosstalk.
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