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Stochastic modeling of regulation of gene expression by multiple small RNAs
A wealth of new research has highlighted the critical roles of small RNAs
(sRNAs) in diverse processes such as quorum sensing and cellular responses to
stress. The pathways controlling these processes often have a central motif
comprising of a master regulator protein whose expression is controlled by
multiple sRNAs. However, the regulation of stochastic gene expression of a
single target gene by multiple sRNAs is currently not well understood. To
address this issue, we analyze a stochastic model of regulation of gene
expression by multiple sRNAs. For this model, we derive exact analytic results
for the regulated protein distribution including compact expressions for its
mean and variance. The derived results provide novel insights into the roles of
multiple sRNAs in fine-tuning the noise in gene expression. In particular, we
show that, in contrast to regulation by a single sRNA, multiple sRNAs provide a
mechanism for independently controlling the mean and variance of the regulated
protein distribution
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