Abortive Initiation as a Bottleneck for Transcription in the Early Drosophila Embryo

Abstract

Gene transcription is a critical step in gene expression. The currently accepted physical model of transcription of MacDonald, Gibbs & Pipkin (1969) predicts the existence of a physical limit on the maximal rate of transcription, which does not depend on the transcribed gene.

A matter of time: Using dynamics and theory to uncover mechanisms of transcriptional bursting

“…control of transcriptional initiation [56] and elongation [57,58], measure translational dynamics [59], and even count molecules [60]. Note that, while appropriate for qualitatively estimating the order of magnitude of bursting timescales, raw fluorescence measurements from MS2 and PP7 experiments such as those in Figure 1A-C do not directly report on the promoter state.…”