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Marlet Morales-Franco, Poonam Bheda, Johannes Becker, Sebastian Maerkl, Carsten Marr, Robert Schneider (Institute of Functional Epigenetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany)
Cells must adapt quickly to their environment to survive, and they do so by regulating the expression of their genes. Part of this regulation arises at the chromatin level, where DNA compaction and post-translational modifications, among other mechanisms, affect the state of a gene. Although chromatin states are tightly controlled, gene regulation does not occur in the same manner in all cells. This effect, termed “noise”, creates variability within a population and exists at the core of many biological processes. Here, we explored the role of chromatin in noise during environmental adaptation. Using different single-cell techniques, we examined the relationship between a gene’s noise and its transcript/protein levels. Our studies identified multiple chromatin-related factors that affect population heterogeneity while maintaining the same average gene response. The absence of these factors created higher or lower levels of noise, which existed only at non-steady-state gene expression levels. Our results explore how chromatin regulation, individual cell behavior, and population responses to environmental cues relate to each other.