WEB FOCUS
Biological noise
In this focus
Biological processes, such as protein synthesis or trafficking, undergo random fluctuations — 'noise' — that are often detrimental to reliable information transfer, but can also constitute opportunities for more efficient cellular computations. This web focus highlights the most vibrant research on the biological systems that have evolved to harness or exploit cellular noise, with direct implications for cancer, stem cells, ageing and evolution, as published in Nature over the past ten years.
Image: Michael Elowitz, Caltech
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Current Research
Article
Fundamental limits on the suppression of molecular fluctuations
Ioannis Lestas, Glenn Vinnicombe & Johan Paulsson
Nature 467 174–178 (09 September 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09333
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Review
Functional roles for noise in genetic circuits
Avigdor Eldar & Michael B. Elowitz
Nature 467, 167–173 (09 September 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09326
News and Views
Systems biology: The cost of feedback control
Li Sun & Attila Becskei
Nature 467, 163–164 (09 September 2010) doi:10.1038/467163a
Letter
Single-cell NF-κB dynamics reveal digital activation and analogue information processing
Savaş Tay et al.
Nature 466, 267–271 (08 July 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09145
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Letter
The scaffold protein Ste5 directly controls a switch-like mating decision in yeast
Mohan K. Malleshaiah, Vahid Shahrezaei, Peter S. Swain & Stephen W. Michnick
Nature 465, 101–105 (6 May 2010) doi:10.1038/nature08946
Article
Variability in gene expression underlies incomplete penetrance
Arjun Raj, Scott A. Rifkin, Erik Andersen & Alexander van Oudenaarden
Nature 463, 913–918 (18 February 2010) doi10.1038/nature08781
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News and Views
Genetics: Random expression goes binary
Adrian Streit & Ralf J. Sommer
Nature 463, 891–892 (18 February 2010) doi:10.1038/463891a
Article
A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks
Tal Danino, Octavio Mondragón-Palomino, Lev Tsimring & Jeff Hasty
Nature 463, 326–330 (21 January 2010) doi:10.1038/nature08753
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News and Views
Synthetic biology: Synchronized bacterial clocks
Martin Fussenegger
Nature 463, 301–302 (21 January 2010) doi:10.1038/463301a
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Archive
Article
Direct cell reprogramming is a stochastic process amenable to acceleration
Jacob Hanna et al.
Nature 462, 595–601 (3 December 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08592
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Letter
Experimental evolution of bet hedging
Hubertus J. E. Beaumont, Jenna Gallie, Christian Kost, Gayle C. Ferguson & Paul B. Rainey
Nature 462, 90–93 (5 November 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08504
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Letter
Population context determines cell-to-cell variability in endocytosis and virus infection
Berend Snijder et al.
Nature 461, 520–523 (24 September 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08282
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Letter
Bursts of retrotransposition reproduced in Arabidopsis
Sayuri Tsukahara et al.
Nature 461, 423–426 (17 September 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08351
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Insight
The logic of chromatin architecture and remodelling at promoters
Bradley R. Cairns
Nature 461, 193–198 (10 September 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08450
Letter
Partial penetrance facilitates developmental evolution in bacteria
Avigdor Eldar et al.
Nature 460, 510–514 (23 July 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08150
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Progress
Elite and stochastic models for induced pluripotent stem cell generation
Shinya Yamanaka
Nature 460, 49–52 (2 July 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08180
Letter
Non-genetic origins of cell-to-cell variability in TRAIL-induced apoptosis
Sabrina L. Spencer, Suzanne Gaudet, John G. Albeck, John M. Burke & Peter K. Sorger
Nature 459, 428–432 (21 May 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08012
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News and Views
Systems biology: When it is time to die
Philippe Bastiaens
Nature 459, 334–335 (21 May 2009) doi:10.1038/459334a
Article
Negative feedback that improves information transmission in yeast signalling
Richard C. Yu et al.
Nature 456, 755–761 (11 December 2008) doi:10.1038/nature07513
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Article
Frequency-modulated nuclear localization bursts coordinate gene regulation
Long Cai, Chiraj K. Dalal & Michael B. Elowitz
Nature 455, 485–490 (25 September 2008) doi:10.1038/nature07292
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Letter
On the spontaneous emergence of cell polarity
Steven J. Altschuler, Sigurd B. Angenent, Yanqin Wang & Lani F. Wu
Nature 454, 886–889 (14 August 2008) doi:10.1038/nature07119
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Letter
Transcriptome-wide noise controls lineage choice in mammalian progenitor cells
Hannah H. Chang, Martin Hemberg, Mauricio Barahona, Donald E. Ingber & Sui Huang
Nature 453, 544–547 (22 May 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06965
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News Feature
Cell biology: The cellular hullabaloo
Helen Pearson
Nature 453, 150–153 (7 May 2008) doi:10.1038/453150a
Letter
Stochastic gene expression out-of-steady-state in the cyanobacterial circadian clock
Jeffrey R. Chabot, Juan M. Pedraza, Prashant Luitel & Alexander van Oudenaarden
Nature 450, 1249–1252 (20 December 2007) doi:10.1038/nature06395
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Letter
Nanog safeguards pluripotency and mediates germline development
Ian Chambers et al.
Nature 450, 1230–1234 (20 December 2007) doi:10.1038/nature06403
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Letter
The effects of molecular noise and size control on variability in the budding yeast cell cycle
Stefano Di Talia, Jan M. Skotheim, James M. Bean, Eric D. Siggia & Frederick R. Cross
Nature 448, 947–951 (23 August 2007) doi:10.1038/nature06072
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Article
MAPK-mediated bimodal gene expression and adaptive gradient sensing in yeast
Saurabh Paliwal et al.
Nature 446, 46–51 (1 March 2007) doi:10.1038/nature05561
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Letter
Variability and memory of protein levels in human cells
Alex Sigal et al.
Nature 444, 643–646 (30 November 2006) doi:10.1038/nature05316
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Letter
Increased cell-to-cell variation in gene expression in ageing mouse heart
Rumana Bahar et al.
Nature 441, 1011–1014 (22 June 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04844
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Article
Single-cell proteomic analysis of S. cerevisiae reveals the architecture of biological noise
John R. S. Newman et al.
Nature 441, 840–846 (15 June 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04785
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Article
Noise-resistant and synchronized oscillation of the segmentation clock
Kazuki Horikawa, Kana Ishimatsu, Eiichi Yoshimoto, Shigeru Kondo & Hiroyuki Takeda
Nature 441, 719–723 (8 June 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04861
Letter
An excitable gene regulatory circuit induces transient cellular differentiation
Gürol M. Süel, Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Louisa M. Liberman & Michael B. Elowitz
Nature 440, 545–550 (23 March 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04588
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Letter
Stochastic protein expression in individual cells at the single molecule level
Long Cai, Nir Friedman & X. Sunney Xie
Nature 440, 358–362 (16 March 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04599
Article
Stochastic spineless expression creates the retinal mosaic for colour vision
Mathias F. Wernet et al.
Nature 440, 174–180 (9 March 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04615
Letter
Origins of extrinsic variability in eukaryotic gene expression
Dmitri Volfson et al.
Nature 439, 861–864 (16 February 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04281
Letter
A bottom-up approach to gene regulation
Nicholas J. Guido et al.
Nature 439, 856–860 (16 February 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04473
Letter
Design principles of a bacterial signalling network
Markus Kollmann, Linda Løvdok, Kilian Bartholomé, Jens Timmer & Victor Sourjik
Nature 438, 504–507 (24 November 2005) doi:10.1038/nature04228
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Article
Regulated cell-to-cell variation in a cell-fate decision system
Alejandro Colman-Lerner et al.
Nature 437, 699–706 (29 September 2005) doi:10.1038/nature03998
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Letter
Enhancement of cellular memory by reducing stochastic transitions
Murat Acar, Attila Becskei & Alexander van Oudenaarden
Nature 435, 228–232 (12 May 2005) doi:10.1038/nature03524
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Letter
Resilient circadian oscillator revealed in individual cyanobacteria
Irina Mihalcescu, Weihong Hsing & Stanislas Leibler
Nature 430, 81–85 (1 July 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02533
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Letter
Programmed population control by cell-cell communication and regulated killing
Lingchong You, Robert Sidney Cox, Ron Weiss & Frances H. Arnold
Nature 428, 868–871 (22 April 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02491
Letter
From molecular noise to behavioural variability in a single bacterium
Ekaterina Korobkova, Thierry Emonet, Jose M. G. Vilar, Thomas S. Shimizu & Philippe Cluzel
Nature 428, 574–578 (1 April 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02404
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Letter
Multistability in the lactose utilization network of Escherichia coli
Ertugrul M. Ozbudak, Mukund Thattai, Han N. Lim, Boris I. Shraiman & Alexander van Oudenaarden
Nature 427, 737–740 (19 February 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02298
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Analysis
Summing up the noise in gene networks
Johan Paulsson
Nature 427, 415–418 (29 January 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02257
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Letter
Noise in eukaryotic gene expression
William J. Blake, Mads Kærn, Charles R. Cantor & J. J. Collins
Nature 422, 633–637 (10 April 2003) doi:10.1038/nature01546
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Insight
Control, exploitation and tolerance of intracellular noise
Christopher V. Rao, Denise M. Wolf & Adam P. Arkin
Nature 420, 231–237 (14 November 2002) doi:10.1038/nature01258
Article
Stochastic and genetic factors influence tissue-specific decline in ageing C. elegans
Laura A. Herndon et al.
Nature 419, 808–814 (24 October 2002) doi:10.1038/nature01135
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News and Views
Ageing: The old worm turns more slowly
Thomas B. L. Kirkwood & Caleb E. Finch
Nature 419, 794–795 (24 October 2002) doi:10.1038/419794a
Article
Hsp90 as a capacitor of phenotypic variation
Christine Queitsch, Todd A. Sangster & Susan Lindquist
Nature 417, 618–624 (6 June 2002) doi:10.1038/nature749
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News and Views
Developmental genetics: Buffer zone
Massimo Pigliucci
Nature 417, 598–599 (6 June 2002) doi:10.1038/417598a
News and Views
Developmental biology: Precision patterning
Nipam H. Patel & Sabbi Lall
Nature 415, 748–749 (14 February 2002) doi:10.1038/415748a
Letter
Establishment of developmental precision and proportions in the early Drosophila embryo
Bahram Houchmandzadeh, Eric Wieschaus & Stanislas Leibler
Nature 415, 798–802 (7 February 2002) doi:10.1038/415798a
Letter
Engineering stability in gene networks by autoregulation
Attila Becskei & Luis Serrano
Nature 405, 590–593 (1 June 2000) doi:10.1038/35014651
News and Views
Gene regulation: Neutralizing noise in gene networks
Timothy S. Gardner & James J. Collins
Nature 405, 520–521 (1 June 2000) doi:10.1038/35014708
Letter
Construction of a genetic toggle switch in Escherichia coli
Timothy S. Gardner, Charles R. Cantor & James J. Collins
Nature 403, 339–342 (20 January 2000) doi:10.1038/35002131
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Letter
A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators
Michael B. Elowitz & Stanislas Leibler
Nature 403, 335–338 (20 January 2000) doi:10.1038/35002125
Brief Communication
Biological rhythms: Circadian clocks limited by noise
Naama Barkai & Stanislas Leibler
Nature 403, 267–268 (20 January 2000) doi:10.1038/35002258
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