Transcriptional Pulsing of a Developmental Gene
Open accessAbstract
It has not been possible to view the transcriptional activity of a single gene within a living eukaryotic cell. It is therefore unclear how long and how frequently a gene is actively transcribed, how this is modulated during differentiation, and how transcriptional events are dynamically coordinated in cell populations. By means of an in vivo RNA detection technique , we have directly visualized transcription of an endogenous developmental gene. We found discrete "pulses" of gene activity that turn on and off at irregular intervals. Surprisingly, the length and height of these pulses were consistent throughout development. However, there was strong developmental variation in the proportion of cells recruited to the expressing pool. Cells were more likely to re-express than to initiate new expression, indicating that we directly observe a transcriptional memory. In addition, we used a clustering algorithm to reveal synchronous transcription initiation in neighboring cells. This study represents the first direct visualization of transcriptional pulsing in eukaryotes. Discontinuity of transcription may allow greater flexibility in the gene-expression decisions of a cell.
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In eukaryotic cells, transcription occurs in cycles.
“In eukaryotic cells, transcription occurs in cycles [50,51,52].”
From Enhancer Function in the 3D Genome (2023) · cites this paper as [51]
The Conclusions report repeated, discontinuous transcription at a developmentally regulated locus in eukaryotic cells. But the study concerns one locus, not transcription generally across eukaryotic cells, and its pulses were irregular rather than periodic cycles. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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- Authors
- Chubb, J. R., Trcek, T., Shenoy, S. M., & Singer, R. H.
- Affiliations
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chubb, Jonathan R.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-05
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1018-1025
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4764056
- OpenAlex
- W2103354991
- Cited by
- 714
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 54 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 14.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 2670 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
- Keywords
- developmental gene expression, transcriptional memory, cell differentiation, cellular heterogeneity, gene expression dynamics
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cell Differentiation, Dictyostelium, Eukaryotic Cells, Kinetics, RNA, Messenger, Transcription, Genetic, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Genes, Developmental
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