title: Dynamic competition between transcription initiation and repression: Role of nonequilibrium steps in cell-to-cell heterogeneity.
abstract: Transcriptional repression may cause transcriptional noise by a competition between repressor and RNA polymerase binding. Although promoter activity is often governed by a single limiting step, we argue here that the size of the noise strongly depends on whether this step is the initial equilibrium binding or one of the subsequent unidirectional steps. Overall, we show that nonequilibrium steps of transcription initiation systematically increase the cell-to-cell heterogeneity in bacterial populations. In particular, this allows also weak promoters to give substantial transcriptional noise.
authors.affiliation: Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Namiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mitarai
authors.affiliation: Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Semsey
authors.affiliation: Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sneppen
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases