Stochastic gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana

Biology is a noisy act, as the expression of the same gene in the cells of the same tissue differs. This noise can be divided into intrinsic noise, due to inherent stochasticity of molecular processes, and extrinsic noise, indicating differences between the neighboring cells. Schultheiß Araújo and colleagues used NLS-YFP / -CFP driven by 35S and UBQ10 promoters and observed variability in expression of fluorophores throughout the time and space. The levels of extrinsic noise were observed to be higher than intrinsic noise.  Extrinsic noise increased among the cells with higher endoreduplication levels. The correlation of the extrinsic noise between the neighboring cells was observed only in young tissues. This spatial coupling was found to depend on inheritance of mRNA, protein content and other rates related to gene expression, suggesting existence of micro-domains differing in physiological properties.  (Summary by Magdalena Julkowska) Nat. Commun.  10.1038/s41467-017-02285-7