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Transcriptional noise is a primary cause of the variability (
noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
) in
gene expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...
occurring between cells in isogenic populations (see also
cellular noise Cellular noise is random variability in quantities arising in cellular biology. For example, cells which are genetically identical, even within the same tissue, are often observed to have different expression levels of proteins, different sizes and ...
) . A proposed source of transcriptional noise is
transcriptional bursting Transcriptional bursting, also known as transcriptional pulsing, is a fundamental property of genes in which transcription from DNA to RNA can occur in "bursts" or "pulses", which has been observed in diverse organisms, from bacteria to mammals. ...
although other sources of heterogeneity, such as unequal separation of cell contents at mitosis are also likely to contribute considerably. Bursting transcription, as opposed to simple probabilistic models of transcription, reflects multiple states of gene activity, with fluctuations between states separated by irregular intervals, generating uneven protein expression between cells. Noise in gene expression can have tremendous consequences on cell behaviour, and must be mitigated or integrated. In certain contexts, such as establishment of viral latency, the survival of microbes in rapidly changing stressful environments, or several types of scattered differentiation, the variability may be essential. Variability also impacts upon the effectiveness of clinical treatment, with resistance of bacteria and yeast to
antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...
demonstrably caused by non-genetic differences. Variability in gene expression may also contribute to resistance of sub-populations of cancer cells to chemotherapy and appears to be a barrier to curing HIV.{{Cite journal , last1 = Weinberger , first1 = A. D. , last2 = Weinberger , first2 = L. S. , title = Stochastic fate selection in HIV-infected patients , doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2013.09.039 , journal = Cell , volume = 155 , issue = 3 , pages = 497–9 , year = 2013 , pmid = 24243007 , doi-access = free


Notes

Gene expression