Bentovim Lital, Harden Timothy T, DePace Angela H
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Development. 2017 Nov 1;144(21):3855-3866. doi: 10.1242/dev.146563.
During development, genes are transcribed at specific times, locations and levels. In recent years, the emergence of quantitative tools has significantly advanced our ability to measure transcription with high spatiotemporal resolution Here, we highlight recent studies that have used these tools to characterize transcription during development, and discuss the mechanisms that contribute to the precision and accuracy of the timing, location and level of transcription. We attempt to disentangle the discrepancies in how physicists and biologists use the term 'precision' to facilitate interactions using a common language. We also highlight selected examples in which the coupling of mathematical modeling with experimental approaches has provided important mechanistic insights, and call for a more expansive use of mathematical modeling to exploit the wealth of quantitative data and advance our understanding of animal transcription.
在发育过程中，基因在特定的时间、位置和水平上进行转录。近年来，定量工具的出现显著提升了我们以高时空分辨率测量转录的能力。在此，我们重点介绍了近期利用这些工具来描述发育过程中转录特征的研究，并讨论了有助于转录时间、位置和水平的精确性和准确性的机制。我们试图厘清物理学家和生物学家在使用“精确性”一词上的差异，以便用共同语言促进交流。我们还重点介绍了一些数学建模与实验方法相结合提供了重要机制性见解的实例，并呼吁更广泛地使用数学建模，以利用丰富的定量数据，增进我们对动物转录的理解。
