Frequency domain analysis of fluctuations of mRNA and protein copy numbers within a cell lineage: Theory and experimental validation

The stochasticity of gene expression is manifested in the fluctuations of mRNA and protein copy numbers within a cell lineage over time. While data of this type can be obtained for many generations, most mathematical models are unsuitable to interpret such data since they assume non-growing cells. Here we develop a theoretical approach that quantitatively links the frequency content of lineage data to subcellular dynamics. We elucidate how the position, height, and width of the peaks in the power spectrum provide a distinctive fingerprint that encodes a wealth of information about mechanisms controlling transcription, translation, replication, degradation, bursting, promoter switching, cell cycle duration, cell division, gene dosage compensation, and cell size homeostasis. Predictions are confirmed by analysis of single-cell Escherichia coli data obtained using fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, by matching the experimental and theoretical power spectra, we infer the temperature-dependent gene expression parameters, without the need of measurements relating fluorescence intensities to molecule numbers.