title: Central dogma at the single-molecule level in living cells.
abstract: Gene expression originates from individual DNA molecules within living cells. Like many single-molecule processes, gene expression and regulation are stochastic, that is, sporadic in time. This leads to heterogeneity in the messenger-RNA and protein copy numbers in a population of cells with identical genomes. With advanced single-cell fluorescence microscopy, it is now possible to quantify transcriptomes and proteomes with single-molecule sensitivity. Dynamic processes such as transcription-factor binding, transcription and translation can be monitored in real time, providing quantitative descriptions of the central dogma of molecular biology and the demonstration that a stochastic single-molecule event can determine the phenotype of a cell.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Gene-Wei
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X Sunney
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D002470:Cell Survival; D002477:Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors