Diffusion, dimensionality, and noise in transcriptional regulation. Author Gašper Tkačik, William Bialek Publication Year 2009 Type Journal Article Abstract The precision of biochemical signaling is limited by randomness in the diffusive arrival of molecules at their targets. For proteins binding to specific sites on DNA and regulating transcription, the ability of the proteins to diffuse in one dimension by sliding along the length of the DNA, in addition to their diffusion in bulk solution, would seem to generate a larger target for DNA binding, consequently reducing the noise in the occupancy of the regulatory site. Here we show that this effect is largely canceled by the enhanced temporal correlations in one-dimensional diffusion. With realistic parameters, sliding along DNA has surprisingly little effect on the physical limits to the precision of transcriptional regulation. Keywords Models, Genetic, Gene Expression Regulation, Transcription Factors, Models, Statistical, DNA, Computer Simulation, Transcriptional Activation, Models, Chemical Journal Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys Volume 79 Issue 5 Pt 1 Pages 051901 Date Published 05/2009 Alternate Journal Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys Google ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML