A fundamental feature of cellular growth is that total protein and RNA amounts increase with cell size to keep concentrations approximately constant. A key component of this is that global transcription rates increase in larger cells. Here, we identify RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) as the limiting factor scaling mRNA transcription with cell size in budding yeast, as transcription is highly sensitive to the dosage of RNAPII but not to other components of the transcriptional machinery. Our experiments support a dynamic equilibrium model where global RNAPII transcription at a given size is set by the mass action recruitment kinetics of unengaged nucleoplasmic RNAPII to the genome. However, this only drives a sub-linear increase in transcription with size, which is then partially compensated for by a decrease in mRNA decay rates as cells enlarge. Thus, limiting RNAPII and feedback on mRNA stability work in concert to scale mRNA amounts with cell size.

• PMID: 37944513
• DOI full text
• PubMed
• PubTator

Reference Type

Journal Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't | Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Authors

Swaffer MP, Marinov GK, Zheng H, Fuentes Valenzuela L, Tsui CY, Jones AW, Greenwood J, Kundaje A, Greenleaf WJ, Reyes-Lamothe R, ... Show all

Primary Lit For

CLN3 | WHI5 | DNA-directed RNA polymerase II complex

Additional Lit For

MET3 | GAL7 | GAL10 | GAL1 | MET17

Review For