Central dogma at the single-molecule level in living cells.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 21776076.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/nature10315 and PMC identifier PMC2789972.
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Abstract
Gene expression originates from individual DNA molecules within living cells. Like many single-molecule processes, gene expression and regulation are stochastic, that is, sporadic in time. This leads to heterogeneity in the messenger-RNA and protein copy numbers in a population of cells with identical genomes. With advanced single-cell fluorescence microscopy, it is now possible to quantify transcriptomes and proteomes with single-molecule sensitivity. Dynamic processes such as transcription-factor binding, transcription and translation can be monitored in real time, providing quantitative descriptions of the central dogma of molecular biology and the demonstration that a stochastic single-molecule event can determine the phenotype of a cell.