Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 4, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3364
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Funding
- Italian Institute of Technology Project SEED
- HFSP Program Grant [RGP0020/2011-DI BERNARDO]
- Fondazione Telethon Grant [TGM11SB1]
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miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs able to modulate target gene expression. It has been postulated that miRNAs confer robustness to biological processes, but clear experimental evidence is still missing. Here, using a synthetic biological approach, we demonstrate that microRNAs provide phenotypic robustness to transcriptional regulatory networks by buffering fluctuations in protein levels. We construct a network motif in mammalian cells exhibiting a 'toggle-switch' phenotype in which two alternative protein expression levels define its ON and OFF states. The motif consists of an inducible transcription factor that self-regulates its own transcription and that of a miRNA against the transcription factor itself. We confirm, using mathematical modelling and experimental approaches, that the microRNA confers robustness to the toggle-switch by enabling the cell to maintain and transmit its state. When absent, a dramatic increase in protein noise level occurs, causing the cell to randomly switch between the two states.
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