A stochastic model depicting the coordination of gene expression and organelle biogenesis

A key feature of eukaryotic cells is the presence of compartments with distinct roles called organelles. Regulation of organelle biogenesis is necessary for cells to properly function. Regulatory factors in this process are encoded in genes so the rate of gene expression could significantly affect how organelles are created with a cell. It is still unclear, however, whether there is feedback between gene expression and organelle biogenesis. Specifically, we are interested if there a correlation between how many organelles can be made/how big can they be with how much a related protein, which is the by-product of gene expression, is synthesized in a cell. To investigate this, we build a multi-scale model depicting the coordination of gene expression and organelle biogenesis by simulating these stochastic processes with the Gillespie algorithm. We will present comparisons of this model with experimental data obtained using the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae.