Speakers: Dr. Christopher Glass  (UCSD School of Medicine);

Dr. Casey Romanoski  (UCSD – Chris Glass Lab)

Impact of nautural genetics variation on enhancer selection and function

Sven Heinz, Casey Romanoski, Chris Glass et al.
Nature. (in press)

Speaker: Dr. Chris Rivera (UCSD Biological Sciences);

Global quantification of mammalian gene expression control (Nature. 2011. Bjoern Schwanhaeusser et al.). nature10098

Abstract
Gene expression is a multistep process that involves the transcription, translation and turnover of messenger RNAs and proteins. Although it is one of the most fundamental processes of life, the entire cascade has never been quantified on a genome-wide scale. Here we simultaneously measured absolute mRNA and protein abundance and turnover by parallel metabolic pulse labelling for more than 5,000 genes in mammalian cells. Whereas mRNA and protein levels correlated better than previously thought, corresponding half-lives showed no correlation. Using a quantitative model we have obtained the first genome-scale prediction of synthesis rates of mRNAs and proteins.Wefind that the cellular abundance of proteins is predominantly controlled at the level of translation. Genes with similar combinations ofmRNA and protein stability shared functional properties, indicating that half-lives evolved under energetic and dynamic constraints. Quantitative information about all stages of gene expression provides a rich resource and helps to provide a greater understanding of the underlying design principles.