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Gene expression profiling in single cells from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans reveals lognormal distribution of mRNA levels.

Bengtsson, Martin LU ; Stahlberg, Anders ; Rorsman, Patrik LU and Kubista, Mikael (2005) In Genome Research 15(10). p.1388-1392
Abstract
The transcriptional machinery in individual cells is controlled by a relatively small number of molecules, which may result in stochastic behavior in gene activity. Because of technical limitations in current collection and recording methods, most gene expression measurements are carried out on populations of cells and therefore reflect average mRNA levels. The variability of the transcript levels between different cells remains undefined, although it may have profound effects on cellular activities. Here we have measured gene expression levels of the five genes ActB, Ins1, Ins2, Abcc8, and Kcnj11 in individual cells from mouse pancreatic islets. Whereas Ins1 and Ins2 expression show a strong cell-cell correlation, this is not the case for... (More)
The transcriptional machinery in individual cells is controlled by a relatively small number of molecules, which may result in stochastic behavior in gene activity. Because of technical limitations in current collection and recording methods, most gene expression measurements are carried out on populations of cells and therefore reflect average mRNA levels. The variability of the transcript levels between different cells remains undefined, although it may have profound effects on cellular activities. Here we have measured gene expression levels of the five genes ActB, Ins1, Ins2, Abcc8, and Kcnj11 in individual cells from mouse pancreatic islets. Whereas Ins1 and Ins2 expression show a strong cell-cell correlation, this is not the case for the other genes. We further found that the transcript levels of the different genes are lognormally distributed. Hence, the geometric mean of expression levels provides a better estimate of gene activity of the typical cell than does the arithmetic mean measured on a cell population. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Genome Research
volume
15
issue
10
pages
1388 - 1392
publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL)
external identifiers
  • wos:000232436800009
  • pmid:16204192
  • scopus:25844433114
ISSN
1549-5469
DOI
10.1101/gr.3820805
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5986f78b-4f7d-4a2c-b9e8-02c578af41ed (old id 144843)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16204192&dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 15:28:26
date last changed
2022-04-22 07:52:59
@article{5986f78b-4f7d-4a2c-b9e8-02c578af41ed,
  abstract     = {{The transcriptional machinery in individual cells is controlled by a relatively small number of molecules, which may result in stochastic behavior in gene activity. Because of technical limitations in current collection and recording methods, most gene expression measurements are carried out on populations of cells and therefore reflect average mRNA levels. The variability of the transcript levels between different cells remains undefined, although it may have profound effects on cellular activities. Here we have measured gene expression levels of the five genes ActB, Ins1, Ins2, Abcc8, and Kcnj11 in individual cells from mouse pancreatic islets. Whereas Ins1 and Ins2 expression show a strong cell-cell correlation, this is not the case for the other genes. We further found that the transcript levels of the different genes are lognormally distributed. Hence, the geometric mean of expression levels provides a better estimate of gene activity of the typical cell than does the arithmetic mean measured on a cell population.}},
  author       = {{Bengtsson, Martin and Stahlberg, Anders and Rorsman, Patrik and Kubista, Mikael}},
  issn         = {{1549-5469}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{1388--1392}},
  publisher    = {{Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL)}},
  series       = {{Genome Research}},
  title        = {{Gene expression profiling in single cells from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans reveals lognormal distribution of mRNA levels.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/gr.3820805}},
  doi          = {{10.1101/gr.3820805}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}