Probing Mechanisms of Transcription Elongation Through Cell-to-Cell Variability of RNA Polymerase (Biophysical Journal)

The process of transcription initiation and elongation are primary points of control in the regulation of gene expression. Although biochemical studies have uncovered the mechanisms involved in controlling transcription at each step, how these mechanisms manifest in vivo at the level of individual genes is still unclear. Recent experimental advances have enabled single-cell measurements of RNA polymerase (RNAP) molecules engaged in the process of transcribing a gene of interest. In this article, we use Gillespie simulations to show that measurements of cell-to-cell variability of RNAP numbers and interpolymerase distances can reveal the prevailing mode of regulation of a given gene.