ArticleScience advances2025
A narrow range of transcript-error rates across the Tree of Life.
Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Translation accuracy in E. coli.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Transcript diversity reflects deleterious RNA processing errors shaped by population size in metazoans.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Wanted: A population genetic theory of biological noise regulation.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Mistranslation suppresses mistranscription in eukaryotes.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A symbiotic origin of the ribosome?PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Transcription fidelity and control of alternative splicing contribute to heat stress survival in Arabidopsis.The Plant cell · 2025Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Although transcript-error rates are markedly higher than DNA-level mutation rates, a broad perspective on the degree to which they diverge across lineages remains to be developed. Using modified rolling-circle sequencing, we found a narrow range of transcript-error rates across the Tree of Life, with little evidence supporting local control of error rates associated with gene expression levels. Most errors result in missense changes if translated, and, as with a fraction of nonsense errors, these are underrepresented relative to random expectations, suggesting the existence of mechanisms for purging some such errors. To understand how natural selection and random genetic drift might shape transcript-error rates, we present a model based on cell biology and population genetics. However, while this framework helps understand the evolution of this highly conserved trait, as currently structured, it explains only 20% of the variation in the data, suggesting a need for further theoretical work in this area.
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