Some messages about messenger RNA: transcription, degradation, and noise

by Itay Furman (Weizmann Institute)

Wednesday 7 Oct 2009, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Stockholm

RB35 (RB35)

The abundance of messanger RNA molecules in the cell reflects a balance between transcription and degradation. What are the relationships between these two opposing forces? What could be the consequences downstream (in translation) if the balance is subject to heavy fluctuations? In this talk I will survey results from several projects done at the Pilpel Lab that shed some light on these questions. Specifically, I will talk about our experimental work in yeast that uncovered interesting coupling between mRNA degradation and transcription in response to stress. Next, relationships between the activity of transcription factors and microRNAs, that were found in a binformatics study in human, will be presented. Finally, a theoretical study of a small regulatory network will illustrate how fluctuations in mRNA abundance may significantly affect the kinetics of such a network.