Gene Orientation and Non-coding Transcripts Modulate Noise Levels

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Gene Orientation and Non-coding Transcripts Modulate Noise Levels Guang-Zhong Wang1*, Martin J. Lercher2 and Laurence D. Hurst3 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, China 2 University of Dusseldorf, Germany 3 University of Bath, United Kingdom How is noise in gene expression modulated? Do mechanisms of noise control impact genome organization? In yeast, the expression of one gene can affect that of a very close neighbour. As the effect is highly regionalised, we hypothesise that genes in different orientations will have differing degrees of coupled expression and, in turn, different noise-levels. Divergently organized gene pairs, in particular those with bidirectional promoters, have close promoters, maximizing the likelihood that expression of one gene affects the neighbour. With more distant promoters, the same is less likely to hold for gene pairs in non-divergent orientation. Stochastic models suggest that coupled chromatin dynamics will typically result in low abundance-corrected noise (ACN). Transcription of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) from a bidirectional promoter we thus hypothesise to be a noise-reduction, expression-priming, mechanism. The hypothesis correctly predicts that protein-coding genes with a bidirectional promoter, including those with a ncRNA partner, have lower ACN than other genes and divergent gene pairs uniquely have correlated ACN. Moreover, as predicted, ACN increases with the distance between promoters. The model also correctly predicts ncRNA transcripts to be often divergently transcribed from genes that a priori would be under selection for low noise (essential genes, protein complex genes) and that the latter genes should commonly reside in divergent orientation. Likewise, that genes with bidirectional promoters are rare subtelomerically, cluster together and are enriched in essential gene clusters is expected and observed. We conclude that gene orientation and transcription of ncRNAs are candidate modulators of noise. Keywords: Genomics and genetics Conference: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics, Boston, United States, 4 Sep - 6 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Genomics and genetics Citation: Wang G, Lercher M and Hurst L (2011). Gene Orientation and Non-coding Transcripts Modulate Noise Levels. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00052 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Oct 2011; Published Online: 19 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Guang-Zhong Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Beijing, China, guangzhong.wang@picb.ac.cn Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Guang-Zhong Wang Martin J. Lercher Laurence D. Hurst Google Guang-Zhong Wang Martin J. Lercher Laurence D. Hurst Google Scholar Guang-Zhong Wang Martin J. Lercher Laurence D. Hurst PubMed Guang-Zhong Wang Martin J. Lercher Laurence D. Hurst Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.