Pervasive coexpression of spatially proximal genes is buffered at the protein level

We present evidence that non-functional mRNA coexpression in human cells arises from stochastic chromatin fluctuations and direct regulatory interference between spatially close genes. Protein-level buffering likely reflects a lack of coordination of post-transcriptional regulation of functionally unrelated genes. Grouping human genes together along the genome sequence, or through long-range chromosome folding, is associated with reduced expression noise. Our results support the hypothesis that the selection for noise reduction is a major driver of the evolution of genome organisation.
Source: Molecular Systems Biology - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Tags: Chromatin, Epigenetics, Genomics & Functional Genomics, Genome-Scale & Integrative Biology Articles Source Type: research