Half lives of short-lived mRNA

Range UBC mRNA 2.9: IER2 mRNA 2.2 hours
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Olivia Padovan-Merhar et al., Single Mammalian Cells Compensate for Differences in Cellular Volume and DNA Copy Number through Independent Global Transcriptional Mechanisms. Molecular Cell 58, 1–14, April 16, 2015 DOI: link p.2 left column 3rd paragraph
Primary Source Tani, H. et al., (2012). Genome-wide determination of RNA stability reveals hundreds of short-lived noncoding transcripts in mammals. Genome Res. 22 , 947–956. doi: 10.1101/gr.130559.111.PubMed ID22369889
Method "[Investigators] measured UBC and IER2 mRNA degradation by inhibiting transcription for 4 hr by applying actinomycin D at 1 µg/ml. [They] interpreted the data using models of volume-dependent or -independent degradation." "[Investigators studied] individual primary fibroblast cells (human primary foreskin fibroblasts, CRL2097)."
Comments "For most genes, mRNA counts and volumes in single cells exhibited a strongly positive, linear correlation (e.g., Figure 1C: see Figure S2 for all genes examined). Because larger cells had proportionally more transcripts than did smaller cells, the mRNA concentration remained relatively constant from cell to cell despite considerable variation in absolute mRNA numbers. This scaling property was not confined to high-abundance mRNAs such as GAPDH and EEF2—genes expressing as few as 10 to 20 mRNA per cell such as ZNF444 and KDM5A scaled similarly, as did rRNA (Figure S2). [Investigators] also observed the same behavior for short-lived mRNA such as UBC and IER2 mRNA, whose half-lives are 2.9 and 2.2 hr, respectively (primary source)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111467