skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Transcript level and sequence determinants of protein abundance and noise in Escherichia coli

Journal Article · · Nucleic Acids Research
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gku126· OSTI ID:1625533
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Minho, Braga (Portugal)
  2. Univ. of Minho, Braga (Portugal)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

The range over which a protein is expressed, and its cell-to-cell variability, is often thought to be linked to the demand for its activity. Steady-state protein level is determined by multiple mechanisms controlling transcription and translation, many of which are limited by DNA- and RNA-encoded signals that affect initiation, elongation and termination of polymerases and ribosomes. We performed a comprehensive analysis of >100 sequence features to derive a predictive model composed of a minimal non-redundant set of factors explaining 66% of the total variation of protein abundance observed in >800 genes in Escherichia coli. The model suggests that protein abundance is primarily determined by the transcript level (53%) and by effectors of translation elongation (12%), whereas only a small fraction of the variation is explained by translational initiation (1%). Our analyses uncover a new sequence determinant, not previously described, affecting translation initiation and suggest that elongation rate is affected by both codon biases and specific amino acid composition. We also show that transcription and translation efficiency may have an effect on expression noise, which is more similar than previously assumed.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1625533
Journal Information:
Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 42, Issue 8; ISSN 0305-1048
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (79)

Absolute protein expression profiling estimates the relative contributions of transcriptional and translational regulation journal December 2006
Synonymous codon bias is related to gene length in Escherichia coli: selection for translational accuracy? journal July 1996
Mechanisms of Attenuation by Genetic Recoding of Viruses journal February 2021
Synonymous but not the same: the causes and consequences of codon bias journal November 2010
Data Mining with Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines Using the R/rminer Tool book January 2010
An Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanism for Controlling the Efficiency of Protein Translation journal April 2010
Unfolding of mRNA Secondary Structure by the Bacterial Translation Initiation Complex journal April 2006
Translation initiation in Escherichia coli: sequences within the ribosome-binding site journal May 1992
Lost in translation: the influence of ribosomes on bacterial mRNA decay journal November 2005
Stochasticity in gene expression: from theories to phenotypes journal May 2005
Coding-Sequence Determinants of Gene Expression in Escherichia coli journal April 2009
Quantifying E. coli Proteome and Transcriptome with Single-Molecule Sensitivity in Single Cells journal July 2010
Translation efficiency is determined by both codon bias and folding energy journal February 2010
The pls Package: Principal Component and Partial Least Squares Regression in R journal January 2007
Secondary structure of the ribosome binding site determines translational efficiency: a quantitative analysis. journal October 1990
Translation is a non-uniform process journal December 1984
Diverse molecular mechanisms of translation initiation in prokaryotes journal July 2006
Quantification of protein half-lives in the budding yeast proteome journal August 2006
Multifactorial Determinants of Protein Expression in Prokaryotic Open Reading Frames journal October 2010
Determination of the optimal aligned spacing between the Shine – Dalgarno sequence and the translation initiation codon of Escherichia coli m RNAs journal January 1994
Posttranscriptional Expression Regulation: What Determines Translation Rates? journal January 2007
Proteomic and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal Pathological Changes in the Entorhinal Cortex Region that Correlate Well with Dysregulation of Ion Transport in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease journal April 2021
Quantitative analysis of ribosome binding sites in E.coli journal January 1994
Codon preferences in free-living microorganisms. journal January 1990
Codon bias and heterologous protein expression journal July 2004
Control of Translation by mRNA Secondary Structure in Escherichia coli journal November 1994
Quantification of mRNA and protein and integration with protein turnover in a bacterium text January 2011
Sequence signatures and mRNA concentration can explain two‐thirds of protein abundance variation in a human cell line journal January 2010
Synonymous codon usage in Drosophila melanogaster: natural selection and translational accuracy. journal March 1994
Translational Selection and Yeast Proteome Evolution journal August 2003
The selection-mutation-drift theory of synonymous codon usage. journal November 1991
A Handbook of Statistical Analyses using Stata journal June 2008
Co-variation of tRNA Abundance and Codon Usage inEscherichia coliat Different Growth Rates journal August 1996
Rate-Limiting Steps in Yeast Protein Translation journal June 2013
Quantification of mRNA and protein and integration with protein turnover in a bacterium journal January 2011
Genome-Wide Analysis in Vivo of Translation with Nucleotide Resolution Using Ribosome Profiling journal April 2009
Post-transcriptional Expression Regulation in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae on a Genomic Scale journal November 2004
A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using Stata journal March 2001
Metabolic efficiency and amino acid composition in the proteomes of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis journal March 2002
Natural selection on gene expression journal August 2006
Design Parameters to Control Synthetic Gene Expression in Escherichia coli journal September 2009
Coevolution of Codon Usage and tRNA Genes Leads to Alternative Stable States of Biased Codon Usage journal August 2008
Insights into the regulation of protein abundance from proteomic and transcriptomic analyses journal March 2012
Regulation of noise in the expression of a single gene journal April 2002
The influence of ribosome-binding-site elements on translational efficiency in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli in vivo journal May 1992
Levels of tRNAs in bacterial cells as affected by amino acid usage in proteins journal January 1991
Global quantification of mammalian gene expression control journal May 2011
A Role for Codon Order in Translation Dynamics journal May 2010
Control, exploitation and tolerance of intracellular noise journal November 2002
A Genome-Wide Analysis of Promoter-Mediated Phenotypic Noise in Escherichia coli journal January 2012
Single-cell proteomic analysis of S. cerevisiae reveals the architecture of biological noise journal May 2006
A Role for Codon Order in Translation Dynamics journal April 2010
Teasing Apart Translational and Transcriptional Components of Stochastic Variations in Eukaryotic Gene Expression journal August 2012
Determinants of translation efficiency and accuracy journal January 2011
Noise in protein expression scales with natural protein abundance journal May 2006
A role for mRNA secondary structure in the control of translation initiation journal February 1982
Translation initiation region sequence preferences in Escherichia coli journal January 2007
A Genome-Wide Analysis of Promoter-Mediated Phenotypic Noise in Escherichia coli text January 2012
Stochastic protein expression in individual cells at the single molecule level journal March 2006
Periconceptional nutrition with spineless cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) improves metabolomic profiles and pregnancy outcomes in sheep journal March 2021
Identifying DNA and protein patterns with statistically significant alignments of multiple sequences journal July 1999
Determinant of cistron specificity in bacterial ribosomes journal March 1975
Anatomy of Escherichia coli ribosome binding sites journal October 2001
Analysis of mRNA expression and protein abundance data: an approach for the comparison of the enrichment of features in the cellular population of proteins and transcripts journal April 2002
Correlation of mRNA Expression and Protein Abundance Affected by Multiple Sequence Features Related to Translational Efficiency in Desulfovibrio vulgaris : A Quantitative Analysis journal October 2006
The codon adaptation index-a measure of directional synonymous codon usage bias, and its potential applications journal January 1987
Automated design of synthetic ribosome binding sites to control protein expression journal October 2009
Intrinsic noise in gene regulatory networks journal July 2001
Indirect and suboptimal control of gene expression is widespread in bacteria journal January 2013
Noise in eukaryotic gene expression journal April 2003
Determinants of Protein Abundance and Translation Efficiency in S. cerevisiae journal December 2007
How the Sequence of a Gene Can Tune Its Translation journal April 2010
Two-Step Selection of mRNAs in Initiation of Protein Synthesis journal April 2006
Translation rate modification by preferential codon usage: Intragenic position effects journal January 1987
Codon usage and intragenic position journal July 1988
The dynamic RNA world journal June 2011
Unbiased Quantitation of Escherichia coli Membrane Proteome Using Phase Transfer Surfactants journal December 2009
Codon usage and tRNA content in unicellular and multicellular organisms. journal January 1985
Codon preferences in free-living microorganisms journal June 1990

Cited By (31)

Multiplex methods provide effective integration of multi-omic data in genome-scale models text January 2016
Tissue-specific gene expression and protein abundance patterns are associated with fractionation bias in maize journal January 2020
Patterns of ribosomal protein expression specify normal and malignant human cells journal November 2016
Controlling cell-to-cell variability with synthetic gene circuits journal December 2019
Quantitating translational control: mRNA abundance-dependent and independent contributions and the mRNA sequences that specify them journal October 2017
A phenotypic screening bioassay for Escherichia coli stress and antibiotic responses based on Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and multivariate analysis journal June 2019
The ribosome in action: Tuning of translational efficiency and protein folding: The Ribosome in Action journal June 2016
Multiplex methods provide effective integration of multi-omic data in genome-scale models journal February 2016
Transcriptome-guided parsimonious flux analysis improves predictions with metabolic networks in complex environments posted_content January 2020
Taking chances and making mistakes: non-genetic phenotypic heterogeneity and its consequences for surviving in dynamic environments journal July 2017
GPCRs show widespread differential mRNA expression and frequent mutation and copy number variation in solid tumors journal July 2019
Genome-wide investigation of mRNA lifetime determinants in Escherichia coli cells cultured at different growth rates journal April 2015
Statistical analysis of the individual variability of 1D protein profiles as a tool in ecology: an application to parasitoid venom journal March 2015
Model-based genome-wide determination of RNA chain elongation rates in Escherichia coli journal December 2017
The Code of Silence: Widespread Associations Between Synonymous Codon Biases and Gene Function journal November 2015
GPCRs show widespread differential mRNA expression and frequent mutation and copy number variation in solid tumors journal November 2019
Codon-Resolution Analysis Reveals a Direct and Context-Dependent Impact of Individual Synonymous Mutations on mRNA Level journal August 2017
Leveraging genome-wide datasets to quantify the functional role of the anti-Shine–Dalgarno sequence in regulating translation efficiency journal January 2017
A short translational ramp determines the efficiency of protein synthesis journal December 2019
Elucidation of complexity and prediction of interactions in microbial communities journal August 2017
Joint learning improves protein abundance prediction in cancers journal December 2019
Transcriptome-guided parsimonious flux analysis improves predictions with metabolic networks in complex environments journal April 2020
Bicodon bias can determine the role of synonymous SNPs in human diseases journal March 2017
Effects of growth rate and promoter activity on single-cell protein expression journal July 2017
Predictive analytics of environmental adaptability in multi-omic network models journal October 2015
RNA editing by T7 RNA polymerase bypasses InDel mutations causing unexpected phenotypic changes journal March 2015
Coding translational rates: the hidden genetic code journal July 2016
Effect of codon adaptation on codon-level and gene-level translation efficiency in vivo journal January 2014
Unbiased Quantitative Models of Protein Translation Derived from Ribosome Profiling Data journal August 2015
Joint learning improves protein abundance prediction in cancers other January 2019
Differential bicodon usage in lowly and highly abundant proteins journal January 2017