title: Measuring Absolute RNA Copy Numbers at High Temporal Resolution Reveals Transcriptome Kinetics in Development.
abstract: Transcript regulation is essential for cell function, and misregulation can lead to disease. Despite technologies to survey the transcriptome, we lack a comprehensive understanding of transcript kinetics, which limits quantitative biology. This is an acute challenge in embryonic development, where rapid changes in gene expression dictate cell fate decisions. By ultra-high-frequency sampling of Xenopus embryos and absolute normalization of sequence reads, we present smooth gene expression trajectories in absolute transcript numbers. During a developmental period approximating the first 8 weeks of human gestation, transcript kinetics vary by eight orders of magnitude. Ordering genes by expression dynamics, we find that "temporal synexpression" predicts common gene function. Remarkably, a single parameter, the characteristic timescale, can classify transcript kinetics globally and distinguish genes regulating development from those involved in cellular metabolism. Overall, our analysis provides unprecedented insight into the reorganization of maternal and embryonic transcripts and redefines our ability to perform quantitative biology.
authors.affiliation: The Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill Laboratory, The Ridgeway Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
authors.forename: Nick D L
authors.initials: NDL
authors.lastname: Owens
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 USA.
authors.forename: Ira L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Blitz
authors.affiliation: Program in Vertebrate Developmental Biology, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Maura A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.affiliation: The Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill Laboratory, The Ridgeway Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Patrushev
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Yale Center for Genome Analysis , Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Overton
authors.affiliation: The Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill Laboratory, The Ridgeway Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK. Electronic address: mike.gilchrist@crick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gilchrist
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 USA. Electronic address: kwcho@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Ken W Y
authors.initials: KWY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Program in Vertebrate Developmental Biology, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. Electronic address: mustafa.khokha@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Mustafa K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Khokha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D018628:Gene Dosage; D007700:Kinetics; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D059467:Transcriptome; D014981:Xenopus / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012313:RNA