Speaker：Jiahui Peng (彭嘉慧) Yige Zhao (赵依阁) Jingye Wang (王敬业) Luolan Bai (白罗兰)

Abstract:

Single-cell biology has revealed to us remarkable variability between cells in a population. Both deterministic and stochastic issues contribute to such difference. Recent years people come to realize the various roles of stochasticity in cells. In this journal club we discussed two articles that reveal mechanism as well as biological roles of noise. Stochastic production and partitioning of Ada, a DNA repair protein, leads to cell-to-cell variability in efficiency of DNA damage response. Stochasticity in this process serves as a trade-off to balance repair against toxic side effects of Ada. We next discussed the mechanism underlying transcriptional bursting in bacteria, which has been found to be a major source of gene expression noise. Gyrase binding and dissociation with DNA that changes its supercoiling level contributes to stochastic gene expression. In the discussion session we reviewed sources of stochasticity, and how noise can be beneficial in some cases while needs to be suppressed in others. Noise from experimental methods was also briefly discussed.

Guest information:

1. Dr. Hao Ge (BIOPIC, PKU)

http://bicmr.pku.edu.cn/~gehao/homepage.htm

2. Dr. Yihan Lin (CQB, PKU)

http://cqb.pku.edu.cn/kxdw/zxjs/lyh/254790.shtml

Recommend Literatures：

Review:

Symmons, O. and A. Raj (2016). "What’s Luck Got to Do with It: Single Cells, Multiple Fates, and Biological Nondeterminism." Molecular Cell 62(5): 788-802.

Link：https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1097276516301861

Papers:

Uphoff, S., et al. (2016). "Stochastic activation of a DNA damage response causes cell-to-cell mutation rate variation." Science 351(6277): 1094.

Link: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6277/1094

Chong, S., et al. (2014). "Mechanism of transcriptional bursting in bacteria." Cell 158(2): 314-326.

Link: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(14)00739-9