We recently showed that the mammalian genome encodes> 1,000 large intergenic
noncoding (linc) RNAs that are clearly conserved across mammals and, thus, functional.
Gene expression patterns have implicated these lincRNAs in diverse biological processes …

Gene expression is a fundamentally stochastic process, with randomness in transcription
and translation leading to cell-to-cell variations in mRNA and protein levels. This variation
appears in organisms ranging from microbes to metazoans, and its characteristics depend …

Individual cells in genetically homogeneous populations have been found to express
different numbers of molecules of specific proteins. We investigated the origins of these
variations in mammalian cells by counting individual molecules of mRNA produced from a …

We describe a method for imaging individual mRNA molecules in fixed cells by probing
each mRNA species with 48 or more short, singly labeled oligonucleotide probes. This
makes each mRNA molecule visible as a computationally identifiable fluorescent spot by …

Random cell-to-cell variations in gene expression within an isogenic population can lead to
transitions between alternative states of gene expression. Little is known about how these
variations (noise) in natural systems affect such transitions. In Bacillus subtilis, noise in …

The phenotypic differences between individual organisms can often be ascribed to
underlying genetic and environmental variation. However, even genetically identical
organisms in homogeneous environments vary, indicating that randomness in …

Several of the thousands of human long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been
functionally characterized 1, 2, 3, 4; however, potential roles for lncRNAs in somatic tissue
differentiation remain poorly understood. Here we show that a 3.7-kilobase lncRNA, terminal …

Both the transcription of mRNAs from genes and their subsequent translation into proteins
are inherently stochastic biochemical events, and this randomness can lead to substantial
cell-to-cell variability in mRNA and protein numbers in otherwise identical cells. Recently, a …

RNA, including long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), is known to be an abundant and important
structural component of the nuclear matrix. However, the molecular identities, functional
roles and localization dynamics of lncRNAs that influence nuclear architecture remain poorly …

The mechanism of transport of mRNA-protein (mRNP) complexes from transcription sites to
nuclear pores has been the subject of many studies. Using molecular beacons to track
single mRNA molecules in living cells, we have characterized the diffusion of mRNP …