The most important step in the regulation of protein-coding genes in E. coli is the rate of binding of RNA polymerase to the promoter region.
A group of scientists at the University of California at San Diego and their European collaborators looked at the Concentrations of proteins and mRNAs of about 2000 genes in E. coli. They catalogued these concentrations under several different growth conditions in order to determine whether the level of protein being expressed from each of these genes correlated with transcription rate, translation rate, mRNA stability or other levels of gene expression.
The paper is very difficult to understand because the authors are primarily interested in developing mathematical formulae to describe their results. They expect you to understand equations like,
even though they don't explain the parameters very well. A lot of important information is in the supplements and I couldn't be bothered to download and read them. I don't think the math is anywhere near as important as the data and the conclusions.Read more »
