Abstract
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are core regulators of mRNA transcript stability and translation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike. Genome-wide studies in yeast have shown intriguing relationships between the expression dynamics of RBPs, the structure of post-transcriptional regulatory networks of RBP-mRNA binding interactions and noise reduction in post-transcriptionally regulated expression profiles. In the present study, we assembled and compared the genomic properties of RBPs and integrated transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory networks in four species: Escherichia coli, yeast, mouse and human. We found that RBPs are consistently regulated to have minimal levels of protein noise, that known noise-buffering network motifs are enriched in the integrated networks and that post-transcriptional feedback loops act as regulators of other regulators. These results support a general model where RBPs are the key regulators of stochastic noise-buffering in numerous downstream cellular processes. The currently available datasets do not allow clarification of whether post-transcriptional regulation by RBPs and by noncoding RNAs plays a similar or distinct role, although we found evidence that specific combinations of transcription factors, RBPs and micro-RNAs jointly regulate known disease pathways in humans, suggesting complementarity rather than redundancy between both modes of post-transcriptional regulation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3501-3512 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | The FEBS Journal |
Volume | 279 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Event | ICSB2012 - 12th International Conference on Systems Biology - Mannheim, Germany Duration: 28 Aug 2011 → 1 Sept 2011 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- network comparison
- post-transcriptional regulation
- RNA-binding proteins