Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31818468›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2020

Dynamic Crowding Regulates Transcription.

Anne R Shim, Rikkert J Nap, Kai Huang, Luay M Almassalha, Hiroaki Matusda, Vadim Backman, Igal Szleifer

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 22% 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

17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Chromatin Packing Domain Engineering Through the Manipulation of Nuclear Cationic States.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Leveraging chromatin packing domains to target chemoevasion in vivo.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Molecular Crowding by Computational Approaches.Sub-cellular biochemistry · 2025
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Regulation of organelle size and organization during development.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2023
    Review
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Review
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

7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Anne R ShimDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Rikkert J NapDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Kai HuangDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Luay M AlmassalhaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Hiroaki MatusdaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Vadim BackmanDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Igal SzleiferDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Electronic address: igalsz@northwestern.edu.
Northwestern University · US

Funding

MEDICAL SCIENTIST TRAINING PROGRAMT32GM008152 · NIGMS · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY AT CHICAGO · PI ARDEHALI, HOSSEIN · 1987 to 2021
$24.0M
Research Supplement - Quantitative analyses of tumor cell extravasationU01CA202177 · NCI · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI KAMM, ROGER D · 2015 to 2020
$4.2M
Reducing Cancer Transcriptional Heterogeneity through Regulation of Chromatin StructureR01CA228272 · NCI · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · PI BACKMAN, VADIM, ROY, HEMANT K. · 2018 to 2022
$3.2M
NCI NIH HHS R01 CA228272NCI NIH HHS U01 CA202177NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM008152
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The nuclear environment is highly crowded by biological macromolecules, including chromatin and mobile proteins, which alter the kinetics and efficiency of transcriptional machinery. These alterations have been described, both theoretically and experimentally, for steady-state crowding densities; however, temporal changes in crowding density ("dynamic crowding") have yet to be integrated with gene expression. Dynamic crowding is pertinent to nuclear biology because processes such as chromatin translocation and protein diffusion lend to highly mobile biological crowders. Therefore, to capture such dynamic crowding and investigate its influence on transcription, we employ a three-pronged, systems-molecular approach. A system of chemical reactions represents the transcription pathway, the rates of which are determined by molecular-scale simulations; Brownian dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations quantify protein diffusion and DNA-protein binding affinity, dependent on macromolecular density. Altogether, this approach shows that transcription depends critically on dynamic crowding as the gene expression resultant from dynamic crowding can be profoundly different than that of steady-state crowding. In fact, expression levels can display both amplification and suppression and are notably different for genes or gene populations with different chemical and structural properties. These properties can be exploited to impose circadian expression, which is asymmetric and varies in strength, or to explain expression in cells under biomechanical stress. Therefore, this work demonstrates that dynamic crowding nontrivially alters transcription kinetics and presents dynamic crowding within the bulk nuclear nanoenvironment as a novel regulatory framework for gene expression.

Indexed as

Molecular Dynamics SimulationDiffusionKineticsMacromolecular SubstancesProtein BindingMacromolecular Substances

Identifiers

PMID31818468
PMCPMC7202930
OpenAlexW2989244649

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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.