Noise - Non-acoustic Noise - Noisy Genes

Noisy Genes

Main article: Cellular noise

The activity and regulation of our genes are also subject to noise. Transcriptional noise refers to the variability in gene activity between cells in genetically identical populations (even identical twins are non-identical). Noise in gene activity has tremendous consequences on cell behaviour, and must be mitigated or integrated. Noise impacts upon the effectiveness of clinical treatment, with resistance of bacteria to antibiotics demonstrably caused by non-genetic differences. Variability in gene expression may also contribute to resistance of sub-populations of cancer cells to chemotherapy. In certain contexts, such as the survival of microbes in rapidly changing stressful environments, or several types of scattered differentiation, noise may be essential.

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Famous quotes containing the words noisy and/or genes:

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