Stochastic Gene Expression in a Lentiviral Positive Feedback Loop: HIV-1 Tat Fluctuations Drive Phenotypic Diversity
Molecular Networks
2007-05-23 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Cell Behavior
Abstract
Stochastic gene expression has been implicated in a variety of cellular processes, including cell differentiation and disease. In this issue of Cell, Weinberger et al. (2005) take an integrated computational-experimental approach to study the Tat transactivation feedback loop in HIV-1 and show that fluctuations in a key regulator, Tat, can result in a phenotypic bifurcation. This phenomenon is observed in an isogenic population where individual cells display two distinct expression states corresponding to latent and productive infection by HIV-1. These findings demonstrate the importance of stochastic gene expression in molecular "decision-making."
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.q-bio/0608002,
title = {Stochastic Gene Expression in a Lentiviral Positive Feedback Loop: HIV-1 Tat Fluctuations Drive Phenotypic Diversity},
author = {Leor S. Weinberger and John C. Burnett and Jared E. Toettcher and Adam P. Arkin and David V. Schaffer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:q-bio/0608002},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
Supplemental data available as q-bio.MN/0608003