Contribution of mRNA levels in determining protein expression

Range 10 - 40 %
Organism Mammals
Reference Li et al. (2014), System wide analyses have underestimated protein abundances and the importance of transcription in mammals. PeerJ 2:e270 DOI 10.7717/peerj.270 p.16 2nd paragraphPubMed ID24688849
Primary Source Maier T, Guell M, Serrano L. 2009. Correlation of mRNA and protein in complex biological samples. FEBS Letters 583 :3966–3973 DOI 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.10.036. & Vogel C,Marcotte EM. 2012. Insights into the regulation of protein abundance from proteomic and transcriptomic analyses. Nature Reviews Genetics 13 :227–232 DOI 10.1038/nrg3185.PubMed ID19850042, 22411467
Comments "Other estimates for the contribution of mRNA levels in determining protein expression in mammals are lower than [researchers’], suggesting that mRNA levels contribute 10%–40% (primary sources). In comparison, [they] estimate that mRNA abundance explains 56%–84% [BNID 111364] for a set of 4,212 detected proteins. [They] also have suggested that for the 40% of genes in a given cell that express no mRNA, translation rates likely play no role in determining protein expression levels. The other groups neither took systematic experimental errors into account or made use of direct measures of translation rates and generally do not discuss non-transcribed genes. For this reason, their analyses likely underestimate the contribution of transcription."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111365