ArticleCell2013
Precise developmental gene expression arises from globally stochastic transcriptional activity.
Article in Cell, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 154 papers.
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Who cites it
154 citing papers in PubMed, 303 citations in OpenAlex.
- ROS inhibits microtubule dynamics and cell growth heterogeneity during Arabidopsis sepal morphogenesis.iScience · 2026Article
- Neighborhood-informed positional information for precise cell identity specification.Molecular systems biology · 2026Article
- Core clock protein subcellular dynamics coordinate local and global circadian control in syncytia.The Journal of cell biology · 2026Article
- Decoupling between activation time and steady-state level in input-output responses.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Mitotic reactivation and transcriptional bursting govern transcriptional noise in the early Drosophila embryo.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Direct observation of Notch signaling-induced transcription hubs mediating gene-expression responses.Science advances · 2026Article
- Single-Molecule RNA Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (smRNA-FISH) Labeling and Imaging of mRNA to Determine Subcellular Localization.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- A conserved coupling of transcriptional ON and OFF periods underlies bursting dynamics.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2025Article
- Core Clock Protein Subcellular Dynamics Coordinate Local and Global Circadian Control in Syncytia.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Cell fate ratios are encoded by transcriptional dynamics in the Drosophila retina.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- The maternal-to-zygotic transition: reprogramming of the cytoplasm and nucleus.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Deriving a genetic regulatory network from an optimization principle.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Two-State Stochastic Model of In Vivo Observations of Transcriptional Bursts.Brazilian journal of physics · 2025Article
- Article
- Optogenetic dissection of transcriptional repression in a multicellular organism.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Robust organ size in Arabidopsis is primarily governed by cell growth rather than cell division patterns.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Histone deacetylase Hos2 regulates protein expression noise by potentially modulating the protein translation machinery.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- How Transcription Factor Clusters Shape the Transcriptional Landscape.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Unified bursting strategies in ectopic and endogenousbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Analysis of developmental gene expression using smFISH andbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
94 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Early embryonic patterning events are strikingly precise, a fact that appears incompatible with the stochastic gene expression observed across phyla. Using single-molecule mRNA quantification in Drosophila embryos, we determine the magnitude of fluctuations in the expression of four critical patterning genes. The accumulation of mRNAs is identical across genes and fluctuates by only ∼8% between neighboring nuclei, generating precise protein distributions. In contrast, transcribing loci exhibit an intrinsic noise of ∼45% independent of specific promoter-enhancer architecture or fluctuating inputs. Precise transcript distribution in the syncytium is recovered via straightforward spatiotemporal averaging, i.e., accumulation and diffusion of transcripts during nuclear cycles, without regulatory feedback. Common expression characteristics shared between genes suggest that fluctuations in mRNA production are context independent and are a fundamental property of transcription. The findings shed light on how the apparent paradox between stochastic transcription and developmental precision is resolved.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.