title: Transcriptional bursting is intrinsically caused by interplay between RNA polymerases on DNA.
abstract: Cell-to-cell variability plays a critical role in cellular responses and decision-making in a population, and transcriptional bursting has been broadly studied by experimental and theoretical approaches as the potential source of cell-to-cell variability. Although molecular mechanisms of transcriptional bursting have been proposed, there is little consensus. An unsolved key question is whether transcriptional bursting is intertwined with many transcriptional regulatory factors or is an intrinsic characteristic of RNA polymerase on DNA. Here we design an in vitro single-molecule measurement system to analyse the kinetics of transcriptional bursting. The results indicate that transcriptional bursting is caused by interplay between RNA polymerases on DNA. The kinetics of in vitro transcriptional bursting is quantitatively consistent with the gene-nonspecific kinetics previously observed in noisy gene expression in vivo. Our kinetic analysis based on a cellular automaton model confirms that arrest and rescue by trailing RNA polymerase intrinsically causes transcriptional bursting.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cell Dynamics Observation, Quantitative Biology Center, RIKEN, 6-2-3, Furuedai, Suita, Osaka 565-0874, Japan.|Soft Biosystem Group, Laboratories for Nanobiology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1900-5325
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cell Dynamics Observation, Quantitative Biology Center, RIKEN, 6-2-3, Furuedai, Suita, Osaka 565-0874, Japan.|Soft Biosystem Group, Laboratories for Nanobiology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8893-1103
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iwaki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cell Dynamics Observation, Quantitative Biology Center, RIKEN, 6-2-3, Furuedai, Suita, Osaka 565-0874, Japan.|Soft Biosystem Group, Laboratories for Nanobiology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yanagida
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D061805:Transcription Elongation, Genetic; D061785:Transcription Initiation, Genetic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004247:DNA; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases