Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27368104›Full record

ArticleCell2016

Information Integration and Energy Expenditure in Gene Regulation.

Javier Estrada, Felix Wong, Angela DePace, Jeremy Gunawardena

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Cell, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
95citing papers in PubMed
9.2field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

95 citing papers in PubMed, 191 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Invariant nonequilibrium dynamics in gene regulation optimize information flow.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  11. Emergence of activation or repression in transcriptional control under a fixed molecular context.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
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  20. Stochastic thermodynamics for biological functions.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2025
    Review

35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Javier EstradaDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Felix WongDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Angela DePaceDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Jeremy GunawardenaDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: jeremy@hms.harvard.edu.
Harvard University · US

Funding

Multi-scale modeling of genetic variation in a developmental networkU01GM103804 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI DEPACE, ANGELA H, MARJORAM, PAUL · 2013 to 2016
$2.0M
NIGMS NIH HHS U01 GM103804
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The quantitative concepts used to reason about gene regulation largely derive from bacterial studies. We show that this bacterial paradigm cannot explain the sharp expression of a canonical developmental gene in response to a regulating transcription factor (TF). In the absence of energy expenditure, with regulatory DNA at thermodynamic equilibrium, information integration across multiple TF binding sites can generate the required sharpness, but with strong constraints on the resultant "higher-order cooperativities." Even with such integration, there is a "Hopfield barrier" to sharpness; for n TF binding sites, this barrier is represented by the Hill function with the Hill coefficient n. If, however, energy is expended to maintain regulatory DNA away from thermodynamic equilibrium, as in kinetic proofreading, this barrier can be breached and greater sharpness achieved. Our approach is grounded in fundamental physics, leads to testable experimental predictions, and suggests how a quantitative paradigm for eukaryotic gene regulation can be formulated.

Indexed as

Energy MetabolismGene Expression RegulationModels, GeneticDNATranscription FactorsDNATranscription Factors

Identifiers

PMID27368104
PMCPMC4930556
OpenAlexW2465833271

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.